Good Life Gone
by dfunkt21
Summary: Sequel to Nothing Left.  Following the lives of Lois, Clark and Chloe and how they handle the curve balls life throws at them.
1. Chapter 1

- Good Life Gone -

-Chapter 1

Diving out of the way of a punch she really wanted to avoid taking, Lois rolled to her feet only to find herself ducking an elbow. Coming back up, she aimed a punch at her aggressor's chin as she rose but caught only empty air and was rewarded for her effort by being kicked in the back, sending her sprawling into a wall. Spinning, she launched herself into an attack, throwing what she knew were reckless punches, and had them easily swatted away before being sent on the defensive again.

Pivoting away from a kick, she came around with a swinging backhand, which was ducked and took a punch to the stomach as a result. She stumbled backwards a couple steps, taking a second to catch her breath. Stupid. She should have seen that coming.

"Stop being predictable."

Lashing out with her right foot, Lois forced her to take a step back, and followed with a combination move Bruce had taught her years ago. She'd have never thought about it had there been no comment about being predictable. It was only effective in allowing her to stay on the attack, which she probably should have foreseen, but it ended with her moving with more control than she had been, which was a positive. She'd been too focused on landing something, anything, that she'd throw caution and her balance to the wind.

As quickly as she'd gone on the offensive, she found herself being pulled in as a punch she'd thrown had been trapped, and was being tossed unceremoniously a few feet away. Knowing what could be coming, she used the momentum of the throw to keep rolling, putting a few more feet between them and had time enough to stand up before leaning backwards to avoid another elbow. She leaned too much, though, and ended up flailing a bit to keep from falling over. That was enough. She took a kick to the stomach that sent her onto her back, and a blink later a fist connected with her stomach and was headed for her face. She closed her eyes, expecting impact, and opened them only after she felt none. A fist was stopped right in front of her face, and she got her nose flicked not a second after. Blinking, she scowled. "Hey!"

Chloe grinned at her and offered her a hand up, which she took and used to get herself back on her feet. "So you want full contact, but a little flick to the nose elicits an indignant 'Hey!' does it?"

Rubbing at her nose, she pulled at the straps of her headgear with her other hand until it came loose and she could pull it off. "Punches are fine. Flicking my nose? It leaves a weird, lingering feeling that makes my nose all scrunchy. You know I hate that."

"Yes, I do, so consider it punishment for leaning back ridiculously like you did. I thought I'd broken you of that habit since we started all our training together."

Frowning, Lois started unstrapping her gloves. "I thought the gratuitous punch to the stomach was the punishment!"

"Gratuitous?" Chloe shook her head and started removing her own headgear, prompting Lois to toss her gloves and head gear aside and head over to grab her water, taking a long swig. "That was just me reminding you how lucky you were that I wasn't somebody that had knife or other pointy object at hand. You ever do that in a real fight and I'll take offense to it both as your training partner AND cousin. It's just sloppy."

"I know, I know," Lois grumbled, wiping water off her lips.

"Then stop doing it!"

Lois rolled her eyes and took another drink of water, finishing off what she had. "I'll stop leaning back as soon as I figure out a better way to get out of the way of your annoyingly fast fists and elbows! I don't have to do it with other people because other people didn't spend six months training with Bruce Wayne before being sent off to train in different places throughout the world for almost three years. It's been three months since you got home and we've been doing these sparring sessions for two of those months. That doesn't even take into account the fact that you have yet to come back to the Planet and are spending most of your excessive free time training."

"I meditate, too."

"Point being," Lois said as she fought the urge to roll her eyes at the useless inclusion of meditation, "I'm still catching up!" God it sucked having to say that. Until Chloe had left, Lois had always been better at the physical aspects of life than her cousin. Now she was not only behind, but she was probably totally outclassed, at least when it came to fighting. "I'm closer, but I'm still not landing anything."

Chloe moved closer and smiled, shrugging her shoulders. "Like you said, it's been about three and a half years. I spent all that time studying intensely and soaking up every bit of martial arts knowledge I could, training body and mind. You spent that time being a renowned journalist, being a wife and mother and focusing on more important things than training like this."

"Yeah, well, as proud as I am of you, and I am proud of how you've grown since you left, it just makes me a bit sad that I've been passed by."

Chloe stared off into space for a second before raising an eyebrow. "You passed me in journalism and I passed you in martial arts. Call it even?"

It hardly seemed an even trade, considering journalism had been Chloe's first love, but Lois nodded. "Deal. Also, I think I should get credit for not taking any jabs about your 'being a wife and mother' remark. Normally I'd say something, but I really am working on it."

"What do you call this?"

"An attempt at getting some credit. A jab would have been me saying you need to stop sequestering yourself here in your monstrous apartment through excessive training and meditation and start getting out to meet people and reintegrate into life in Metropolis. Then within a couple years you could fill this monstrous apartment with people that aren't my family and Lucy's family, also referred to as a family of your own. THAT would have been a jab. What I was doing was just trying to get some credit for not taking a jab. And this isn't to say there's anything wrong with being alone, but it can be kind of a lonely thing to be."

"And now you've lost all credit you would have earned. Good job."

"I am better about things now, right?"

Chloe shrugged. "Considering you couldn't be much worse than you once were?" Making a show of thinking about it, Chloe finally said, "Taking that into consideration, it's a relative better."

"Better is better." Lois led the way out of the room Bruce had converted into a training room for Chloe - the man really did think of everything - and into the living room. "Now, I'm gonna hit the shower. I suggest you do the same so you're all squeaky clean when we meet Clark, Jacob and Cassidy for dinner."

Chloe shook her head. "I'm going to shower, but I'm not getting decked out for McDonald's. Why are we going there, by the way?"

"We let Jacob pick where we are going for dinner tonight. He wanted to go to the McDonald's with the big playscape, so there we go. And don't forget, the playgroup party is in six days, which I think you'll enjoy. Obviously more children are going to be around than you're used to, but the other parents are good people, which is why I want you to come and meet them. While I'm awesome and Clark is pretty great, you need friends that live in Metropolis and aren't your family."

"I still think it's weird that you're making me go to Jacob's playgroup party, but I'll go and be totally out of place. In the grand scheme of things you, Clark and the kids are happy. I'm happier than I've been in a long time. Basically there's happiness abound, so we must be doing something right."

"You're waiting for the other shoe to drop, aren't you?" Lois asked.

Lois watched as Chloe sucked her lip, not saying anything for a minute. "Does seem to be the pattern for me when things are going well." Chloe shrugged and walked back towards her room, leaving Lois alone in the living room. Unable to decide if she wanted to sigh at Chloe's unfortunately accurate statement or roll her eyes at her negative attitude, she ultimately did neither. A shower would be a better way to spend her time.

* * *

><p>Running a hand through what proved to be hair that was still a little shorter than how she'd once worn it, Chloe cracked her neck and walked into Lois and Clark's house, only to be greeted by the sound of children being loud. This was hardly a foreign sound, considering they had two children, but this was an onslaught of party proportions. She was surprised that the house was decorated, though it made sense that Clark might like to do something like that. His upbringing of partial seclusion by Martha and Jonathan probably lent itself to him going a bit overboard for these occasions.<p>

Bobbing and weaving through a running group of children, Chloe reached the kitchen, which appeared to be the chosen sanctuary for many of the attending parents. She recognized a few, having met them since she had returned to Metropolis, but most were strangers. Could be worse; Lois could have used the opportunity to set her up with single dads. She really was trying to be better about social interaction, but her 'better' often left something to be desired in Lois' mind.

As if bidden by the thought, Lois came walking into the kitchen and spotted her. "Chloe, hey! About time you got here!"

Chloe held up the bag she was holding and shrugged. "I was running some errands and lost track of the time. I brought some snacks for the kids, though, just in case you forgot to get something extra sugary." She pulled out two twelve packs of cupcakes from the bag and put them on the counter. "I figured that would be enough to cover the kids and a few parents."

Lois raised an eyebrow as she pulled milk out of the fridge and put it on the counter. "_You _lost track of time while shopping? You look and sound like Chloe Sullivan, but you act like somebody I've never met before."

"Very funny."

"Easy joke. Would have worked harder but been trying to keep track of bunches of children. It's tiring." Lois paused a second and looked at her, causing Chloe to fidget. "You look uneasy and antsy. Of course, you probably know that. What's wrong?"

As much as she wanted to say she was fine, it was, as Lois said, obvious that she wasn't. No point in beating around the bush when you've been called on something. "It's just... it's been a while since I've been to a party."

Lois stashed the milk back in the fridge before taking her by the wrist, pulling her through people and the house until they were out the front door. "I take it we're out here for the relative peace and quiet?" she asked.

Lois nodded. "That, and I wanted to talk to you before things inside get crazy and I'm too busy."

Wow, she really had been away a long time if what had been going on in the house didn't yet qualify as crazy. "Um, ok. I mean, I don't really need to talk about being uncomfortable at a party because it's not like I was ever really into any social scene."

"Chlo, this isn't some college party or a bar we're talking about. It's Jacob's playgroup. What about that makes you feel uncomfortable?"

"I barely know anybody, Lois. As good as I was at talking to people as a reporter, I've spent most of the past three years listening and learning in some pretty secluded places. I ran into some chaos here and there, but nothing like this party. I haven't been to a kid's party since I was one of the kids! Of the adults in there, I know you, Clark, Juliet, Adam and Mary. I don't even know why I'm here!"

"It's because I want you to meet people."

"What? Lois, please, don't try to fix me up at a party. That's just ridiculous and..." She trailed off as Lois held up a hand.

"Give me some credit, would you? You asked me not to, so I won't. When I said I want you to meet people, what I want is for you to interact, Chloe. I mean, didn't we just have this conversation? You hardly leave your apartment if you aren't meeting me somewhere. It's time to stop secluding yourself and start living again. I feel ridiculous that I even have to do this because when you got back you were uncomfortable having that apartment and the thought of being cooped up inside all the time made you shudder. Three months later you spend basically every hour of every day in your apartment. Why did you come back to Metropolis if you're just going to hide?"

"I tried to kill him, Lois," Chloe said quietly.

"What?"

"I tried to kill Lex. You were there. I pulled the trigger and almost killed Clark because he was trying to stop me from becoming a murderer. But that didn't save me, Lois. I thought I was at peace with what I'd done, but it's different being home than it is being in the middle of nowhere. I spent almost as much time on the mental aspect of my training as I did the physical, but I'm back in this great bastion of civilization and half the time I have to meditate just to keep my mind at ease. When you take the action but it fails because of intervention intent is the same as the deed, and if we lived in a world where there wasn't a Superman, I would have murdered Lex. You sent me to a man you thought had been through something similar, but I went farther than Bruce did. I didn't just have the gun, I took the shot. So yeah, I'm hiding, because that's right here inside of me," she said, pointing to her head. "I'm no different than Lex."

Lois stared at her for a second before heaving a sigh. "Well that's just crazy talk. Lex isn't dead by your hand, Chloe, which means that there is no blood on your hands. Lex is in jail because he is covered in the blood of innocent people. By my calculations that means there is a world of difference between you two, and you are a much, _much _better person than he could ever hope to be. Now where is all this coming from? When you got back you were you, except now with kung fu grip."

"I was happy to be home, to see my family again and basking in the glow of getting to know Jacob, Cassidy and Lucy's daughter Bridget. Now life is mundane again and I have time to think."

"First time I've ever been against thinking," Lois grumbled. "So, because of what happened that night you don't feel like you should interact with people anymore? I don't get it. I don't get how seclusion makes anything better."

"It's just... easier, I guess, when I'm not around people."

"Well that makes no sense. Being around people will get you out of your head and thinking about other things. Now, I've heard enough mopey, depressing bullshit for one day, especially at a party! You are going to come inside, mingle, make small talk and eat cake until you enjoy yourself against your will. Am I understood?"

"Lo, you can't order me around like one of your kids." Lois crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, tapping her foot slowly as she did so. Chloe frowned; apparently being a mom had made Lois figure out how to have an even better glare. "Fine, but I refuse to enjoy myself."

* * *

><p>Holding a slumbering Cassidy, Clark made his way up the stairs and into her room, placing her down gently in bed. Giving her a soft kiss goodnight, he left the door cracked open behind him as he walked out and headed back downstairs. Entering the kitchen, he spotted Lois and with a mischievous grin, wrapped her up from behind. "Through some sort of witchery or hoodoo voodoo, you seem to be more beautiful than the day I met you. Granted, I don't remember that day, but still..." She reached back around and ran a hand through his hair, mussing it up a bit before turning in his arms to face him. He still couldn't believe how lucky he'd gotten, marrying Lois and making a life with her. This was something he'd though would always be out of reach, but fortunately Lois Lane had a habit of taking things that were just out of reach and jumping to get them. He considered himself extremely lucky she'd decided to jump to him, and then jump him. <em>That<em> might be the luckiest thing of all, and had led to the best things of all, Jacob and Cassidy.

Shaking her head, she smiled at him. "Are you getting all sappy and romantic on me again, Smallville?"

"Me?" Clark asked, feigning at being offended. "I think everybody knows that you're the sappy and romantic one in this marriage."

Lois made a sound Clark thought he may never have heard before, some sort of half snort, half grunt, in her disbelief. "Yeah, right."

"It's true. See, the thing is that despite the fact that I'm pretty sappy and romantic, down deep in your heart there's a whole reservoir of romanticism trying to break free. Hide it as you might, I know it's there, and it dwarfs the romanticism I bring to the table. I wear mine on my sleeve, as a constant reminder. You have to build a dam between yours and the world, but sometimes the dam can't hold it back anymore and then it just gushes out until you build a new dam. So in the end, my romanticism is a nice, calm stream. Yours is a dammed river that can barely be held back."

She shot him an incredulous look, one he'd grown used to getting from her earlier in life. It was basically her holding back from asking if he'd lost his mind and was done rambling. "Is this something you've put some thought into, or was all that just off the cuff?"

"First time I've thought about the difference."

"Huh."

She bit her lip for a second in an entirely too sexy way, then took in a deep breath before letting it out slowly. She did it again and Clark couldn't help himself after the first, glancing down for a second. When she did it again, he nearly groaned. "Now you're just teasing me."

"Of course I am, and I'm happy to do so." She kissed his forehead and slipped out of his arms, back to where she'd been at the sink. "Maybe, just _maybe_, if you play your cards right tonight, there could be a bit more than teasing... after."

"After?"

"After everything is cleaned up, Jacob is sleeping and Chloe goes home."

"She's still here? I thought she'd gone home all ready."

Lois's head moved a bit, a tell tale sign that she was rolling her eyes. "With an attitude like that it's no wonder Chloe wanted to leave as soon as she got here. Did you even say five words to her today?"

This was an unfortunate turn in the conversation. No, that wasn't right; he obviously had no problem talking about Chloe. He'd just kinda gotten fixated on what was potentially happening later. "Of course I talked to her, Lois. I mean, I didn't get a chance to say much more than hi until the party was over because I was keeping an eye on everything and had to make a save, but we talked for a few minutes once things had died down. Where is she now?"

"She and Jacob are out back playing catch. Look, when Chloe got here she was looking for a way to get out of staying. But when we got right down to it, we opened a whole different can of worms, the wormiest of which is her thinking that she's no better a person than Lex Luthor."

"What? Of course she's a better person than Lex. How did she even come to that conclusion?"

"She feels that the intent is the same as the deed when it comes to her attempted murder of Lex."

Clark started to speak to the contrary of that belief, but snapped his mouth shut as soon as it opened. Thinking for a second, he couldn't really come up with much to say. "She makes an interesting point."

Lois spun, her eyes filled with fire. He had to fight to keep his hands in place instead of checking if there were scorch marks anywhere on his clothes or face. "She _what_?"

"If it had been anybody else that had tried to kill Lex that night, Lois, I would have saved him but I would have turned in the person trying to shoot him. It's attempted murder, even if it's Chloe."

"But it's still _Chloe_! Do you think I'd leave our son alone with a murderer?"

Clark took a step forward and placed his hands gently on Lois's shoulders, trying to find the right words to explain his position. "I know that the world isn't black and white, Lois. Lex pushed Chloe, and that would have been fine, but life piled on and Lex pushed her again causing her to take action. But she took the wrong kind of action. Instead of using all of her skills to show the world that her article about him doing unsanctioned tests on second generation meteor infected wasn't a lie, she used her skills to get into LexCorp and try to kill him, and she almost succeeded. If anybody could have talked her out of it, it would have been you, but she was going to shoot him in front of you.

"I know that you love her, probably as much or more than you love me, but I don't know if you see how much she's changed. She isn't who she used to be, and she never will be. You still see Chloe Sullivan the reporter, but she hasn't been that person for a long time now. She might still go back to the Planet someday, because Perry would take her back in a second, but I don't think that's what she wants from life anymore. You'd have to ask her about that.

"I remember what it's like, carrying around a ton of guilt. You know that it still gets me from time to time. I know what it's like to know that you're capable of killing somebody in vengeance for something they've done. I've toed that line before. Remember what happened when Alicia was killed?"

"I know you, Clark. You could never kill somebody."

He smiled for a second, but it slipped away. "Chloe found out that she's capable of taking a life, Lois. She pulled the trigger, twice, and if I hadn't taken those bullets... she and I were in the same situation. We both intended murder, and both of us had you there to talk us down. I heard you, but Chloe didn't. She didn't want to. Now she has to learn to live with that guilt here in the world she knows, in the city where she did it. Nobody knows what kind of time that will take." Running his hands slowly down her arms, he entwined his hands with hers. "In the meantime, just be patient with her. I know that's not your strength, but I have confidence in you."

Lois looked down at the floor for a moment before looking back up into his eyes. "I love her too much to lose her to this again, Smallville. She's going to be ok if I have to will her to it. If she has to learn to live with her guilt in Metropolis, then I'll be there for every step."

"And so will I, Lois."

She glanced back at the sink, scowling for a second before turning back to him. "Screw it. The cleaning can wait. Let's go join Jacob and Chloe."

Clark smiled, running his hands down her arms a second before kissing her softly. "Go ahead. I'm going to fly into the city, make sure everything is ok."

"All right. I love you, Clark."

"I love you too, Lois. I'll see you later."

* * *

><p>"Why is golf called golf, daddy?"<p>

Clark glanced down at Jacob, who was sitting next to him on the couch, then looked back up at the television, which had baseball on it. How in the world had he come up with _that_ question? He hadn't even been aware that Jacob knew what golf was, let alone contemplated why it was called what it was. Why _was_ it called golf? "Well buddy, I'm not really sure why. Honestly, I'm not much of a golf fan, so I think it's something you should ask your mom."

"Does she like golf?"

Probably no more than he did. "Can't hurt to ask, right?"

"Right," Jacob agreed as he popped up off the couch and made his way upstairs, where Lois was working on a human interest piece Perry had assigned her after she'd annoyed him a little too much. Any other and Sunday he would be the one upstairs working on an article about the positive effects the Girl Scout troops had on the area through helping keep parks clean.

Settling back, Clark lowered his glasses and surreptitiously x-rayed the ceiling, finding Lois with what appeared to be a now awake Cassidy in her lap, trying to type as she listened to Jacob. Suddenly she looked down at the floor, almost as if she knew what he was doing, scowling like she could see him just as easily as he could her. Blinking, he stopped looking through the ceiling, and despite knowing she couldn't see him, cleared his throat and flipped the channel to the news, turning the volume up as he did so. They were showing a map of a rural part of India, with a group of towns highlighted and an arrow pointing to the area they were talking about.

"...and after an especially wet couple months, the nearly fourteen inches of rain over the last three days was too much for the dam to hold. Within the last hour two villages have been flooded and four more are in serious danger of going under by six o'clock this morning, local time. For more on this we go to..."

Jumping into super speed, Clark was changed into his tights and flying out of the house, leaving a note on Lois's desk as he flew out. Arms plastered to his side, he felt his hair being whipped around as he flew. For some reason that always stood out to him; he figured it was probably because Lois always seemed to point out what flying at high speeds did to her hair. She'd always been a strange influence on him, even when she wasn't trying.

He started his descent, and landed with a soft thud on a hill looking down on the area that just moments ago had been nothing but a spot on a map to him. Scanning the area, he took off again a second later as he spotted a person in the water, a young woman, flailing as she was being swept away from the wood she'd been using to stay afloat. Picking her out of the water, he placed her gently ashore, giving her a reassuring smile before returning to the work at hand.

Blinking once as a wind swept through the study, Lois looked around for a second before spotting a folded piece of paper sitting on the desk in front of her. Keeping one arm around Cassidy, she grabbed the note and read it. A dam burst in India. Well, at least _he_ was getting something done today. The same could not be said for her.

"What does dad's note say, mom?"

Lois looked down at Jacob, who was standing next to her chair. "How did you know it was from your dad?"

"I saw him fly through. I tried to wave but he didn't see me. I guess I'm not fast enough yet."

"Not... not..." Oh crap. He was four! She didn't think she'd have to deal with any powers until at least... well, she'd been hoping double digits, but she'd have been happy with eight. Four, though... he wasn't even in school yet! Wait... not fast _enough_? She made eye contact with him, shifting Cassidy a little bit as she rested in her lap. "How fast are you, Jacob?"

His eyes lit up and a big, goofy grin reminiscent of his father's stretched across his face. "I can go really fast mom! Watch!" And with a little puff of wind, he disappeared from sight.

Lois closed her eyes and groaned, hugging Cassidy a little tighter to herself. "Please tell mommy that you won't grow up and have crazy powers, Cass. It would do her heart some good." Unfortunately, at two, she assumed Cassidy was too young to tell her what she wanted to hear. That, or she was already aware she shouldn't make promises she couldn't keep. Hopefully, if she got really lucky, both her children would inherit his invulnerability along with the ineffectiveness of using kryptonite on her. Her human genes had to be good for something, damn it. _'But if nothing else, please let them both have the invulnerability,'_ she thought.

She sat there in silence with Cassidy for upwards of ten minutes, each minute exponentially adding to her anxiety about where Jacob was, until a little gust of air announced his presence, Jacob appearing in front of them, trying to catch his breath. "Where did you go?" Lois asked, wishing she had it in her at the moment to be stern rather than just happy he was back.

"I ran to Grandma's farm and back."

Rubbing at the spot between her eyes, Lois felt the beginnings of a serious headache starting. "How in the world do you know how to run to the farm?"

"Dad ran Cassidy and me out there on my birthday!"

"Cassidy and I," she corrected, more by habit than anything. Her interruption barely delayed him.

"When you were training with Aunt Chloe, we went to the farm for a little while. We saw Krypto and talked. He asked me if I could do anything special, and that's when I told him that I could run fast."

Clark Kent was a dead man flying. He had known about this and hadn't told her? The fact that one of her children can literally run like the wind is not something she should be in the dark about! That man... if it wasn't punishing herself as much as it was him, she would cut him off for, like, a month. No, she was going to have to be less conventional about it than that. Something devious yet unnoticeable by the kids. Maybe she could deck herself out in pink and act like Lana. That would freak him out.

"I'm thirsty, mama."

Without looking down, Lois softly ran a hand through Cassidy's hair before standing and settling her up on a hip. "Jacob, come downstairs with us, please." Once in the kitchen, Lois set Cassidy up with a glass of milk before sitting Jacob down at the table, kneeling down in front of him so they could speak face to face. "I don't know what dad told you about using your... gift, I guess we'll call it, but I imagine he told you that you need to be very careful about using it. For now, I'm going to ask you not to use it unless your father or I are around, especially your father, so that he can keep an eye on you."

"That's what Dad said, Mom, especially because I still have trouble stopping sometimes."

Fantastic. It was a good thing Clark had super speed and was good at fixing things or else they were going to have to figure out how to explain the holes in their walls to the neighbors. And if he couldn't fix it, he could at least do a good patch job. God, she need time to think things through. Just an hour or two of peace and quiet so she could get a grip on things. Of course, before she started gripping things, she was going to have to finish her article, which still needed at least an hour or two of work. And of course Clark was off being heroic. One of these days he was going to have to stop doing that so she had an easier time staying mad at him.

That only left one thing to do.

* * *

><p>Not quite sure how it had all happened, Chloe found herself walking down the streets of downtown Metropolis, pushing a stroller that held Cassidy with one hand and holding Jacob's hand with her other so that he didn't take off on her. Tilting her shoulder a bit to adjust the bag Lois had sent her off with for Cassidy, Chloe decided right then and there that she was going to have to take some time and study her cousin's method of persuasion. It was disturbingly effective.<p>

"Where are we going, Aunt Chloe?"

Grinding her teeth as she tried to think of something to say, she spotted an ice cream parlor about a block away, and figured that was as good a place as any to sit them down, load them up on sugar and really make life difficult. "What do you think about ice cream?"

"I love it!"

"Good, because we're going to go get some."

* * *

><p>Lowering a felled tree down onto the pile, Clark surveyed his work for a moment, using his x-ray vision to check and make sure the jury-rigged dam he'd built would hold for the time being. Using trees uprooted from the initial floods, and others that wouldn't have survived, he'd been able to divert the flow of the river just enough to allow villages further down river to avoid major flooding. He had been able to save all the people that he could find alive, which hadn't been nearly enough in his mind. When he'd stopped finding people, Clark had taken to surveying the land to see where the river would flow depending on where he built the dam. He'd taken as much time as he could to make sure where he built it was sound, but he hadn't had long, and had built the thing in a slow rush to make sure that it stayed together. Never in his life had he felt more like a beaver. Never in his life, prior to this, had he actually felt like a beaver.<p>

With one last nod at the structure, Clark was about to take off to start searching for survivors again when he heard a noise behind him. Turning, he squinted and tried to see what was making the noise when a rock the size of his head flew out of the tree line, looking more launched than thrown. Frowning, he prepared to catch it when the rock began glowing green, weakness and sickness washing over him right before it slammed into his stomach, knocking the air out of him as he fell to the ground.

Gasping for air, Clark turned onto his stomach and pushed himself to his knees, only to be kicked in the stomach, forcing a groan out of him as he curled into the fetal position. Opening his eyes, he spotted at least five men in front of him, each holding kryptonite. The one furthest from him was holding a phone to his ear, grinning as she spoke.

"Target acquired."

* * *

><p>Gnawing on a pencil as she typed, Lois stopped and flexed her fingers before continuing. If having to stop and give her fingers a second to recover wasn't a sign she was getting old, she didn't know what was. When she had started at the <em>Planet<em> she could type for four or five hours without having to stop, though she'd often had to due to not knowing her voice as well as she did now. Rewrites had always bugged the crap out of her, but time had made her voice more clear, eliminating such annoyances for the most part.

Giving her hands a good shake, she put them to the keyboard to finish off the last couple paragraphs when she froze at the sound of glass breaking downstairs. Perfect. Probably some of the kids from down the street throwing a ball around and getting out of hand. Popping up out of her chair, Lois was about to walk out of the study when glass crashed two more times. Jogging down the hall, she started down the stairs when she smelled smoke. Taking the stairs two at a time, she had to stop as she reached the bottom step, shocked at what she saw.

Her house was on fire.

Almost all of the downstairs she could see was covered in fire. The couches, the pictures... everything was burning. Running back upstairs, she coughed some smoke out of her lungs before focusing her mind. There was no time for sentiment. She hadn't had any candles going, and the glass breaking sounds had preceded the fire, so what could it be? Crouching while she still had time before the fire engulfed the whole house, she crawled to the big bay window that overlooked the front yard. Peeking out, she saw three men in dark, military style uniforms, half crouching behind some bushes but not really making a lot of effort besides that to stay hidden. Ballsy of them to attack while in the afternoon instead of waiting until dark.

Backing away, Lois noticed that the floor was beginning to get hot before she stood up. No time for thinking now; they probably had people watching the rest of the house as well. Thank God she'd gotten Jacob and Cassidy out to be with Chloe while she worked. That statement ran through her mind a dozen times as she grabbed an old wooden baseball bat Clark had from his childhood, testing its weight as she allowed herself one last series of thoughts: '_I love you Jacob. I love you Cassidy. And I love you, too, Clark.'_

Taking a breath, Lois ran and launched herself at the window.

* * *

><p>Walking into the ice cream parlor, Chloe let her eyes sweep the room, noting what appeared to be a small birthday party off in a corner near the front window. The dad, or at least the man she assumed was the dad, was filming the kids getting ice cream all over themselves. She didn't envy that cleanup job. Granted, it was something she had to look forward to after Jacob and Cassidy stuffed themselves. Guiding the stroller along, she brought it to a halt in the far corner from the birthday party. "How about this table back here?" Chloe asked, getting Jacob set up in his chair and making sure Cassidy was OK in her stroller for the moment before dumping Cassidy's diaper bag and sitting down, slumping a little as she did so.<p>

She'd been alone with Jacob and Cassidy before, babysitting either at their house or her apartment while Lois and Clark had a night to themselves. That wouldn't have been anything extraordinary. But Lois had been so convincing that it was a nice day and they should be outside, soaking up the sun while she showed the kids the city... of course, this was right about the time her cousin had dropped the bombshell that Jacob had at least one of his father's abilities. Chloe had been so shell shocked by the news that she had been downtown with children in tow before she knew what was happening.

Clark had never told her when he'd developed his super speed, but it seemed like four was too young for that sort of thing. Or, maybe it was normal in this situation. Unless Kara was out there somewhere having children and not telling anybody, which seemed unlikely, nobody knew what normal was.

"Ok guys, what kind of ice cream do you wa-"

Jumping as a man burst into the ice cream parlor noisily, Chloe put herself between the man and the children as he pulled a gun out from the back of his jeans. "Everybody out! Now!" He pointed his gun at the clerks behind the counter. "Run!" Before Chloe could scoop up Jacob and Cassidy he had his gun pointed at her, stepping closer. "Not you guys! You stay right there!"

Chloe simply nodded, keeping herself crouched with her body between the gunman and the kids. He took a few steps back, watching everybody else run away from the store with a calmer demeanor than he'd shown coming in. This wasn't just a robbery. Putting her head down, she positioned her mouth next to Jacob's ear. "I know this is scary, but we're going to be all right. I'm going to ask you something; you don't need to say anything, just nod or shake your head, ok?" He nodded, and at the moment she could never have loved Lois and Clark more for raising a smart child.

"I need you to carry your sister to safety. Your mom told me about your gift, about what you can do. I know you're not supposed to run really fast unless your parents are around, but I need you to carry your sister and run to the farm as fast as you can, ok? Not your house, but the farm. I know you know how to get there. Can you do that for me?" There was a pause for a second, and she knew he was wondering if he could carry his sister, but true to his Lane and Kent genes, he nodded. With a quick motion, Chloe unhooked the clip keeping Cassidy in the stroller and had her in his arms, and with a breeze across her face they were gone.

Rising, she took a glance back over her shoulder before spinning and running at the gunman, covering the distance between them in just a few fluid steps. A shot rang out but missed, and that was all the opening she needed as she caught his gun hand with her left and jammed the palm of her hand into his elbow, which immediately cracked. As he cried out Chloe was rebounding off the blow to his elbow and ramming her elbow into his nose with a loud crack.

He fell backwards, the gun dropping from his hand. With a quick flick of her leg, she clipped him across the jaw with her foot and knocked him out, doing her best not to break his jaw in the process. If it did happen he deserved it, but with a broken jaw the police wouldn't get much of a statement from him. Kneeling down, she started feeling around for other weapons under his clothes. Frowning when she felt strange lumps, she frowned and pulled up his shirt, only to find herself staring C4 in the face, with a timer on it. "Shit," she bit out, rising and running as fast she could out the front door. She'd made it about ten steps from the store when the explosion went off, sending her flying. Colliding with a parked car, the world went black.


	2. Chapter 2

- Chapter 2

Of all the ideas Lois had ever had when in life or death situations, this was definitely one of her less thought out and more reckless. Times like these were when she actually wished she'd had the time to think through a decision, because this seemed like a time where not thinking might actually get her killed. Fact was, it was all her cousin's fault she was doing this. If Chloe hadn't told her to stop being predictable she probably wouldn't have felt the need to go jumping out of windows to attack people that were burning down her house. Probably.

Biting back a gasp as shards of glass tore through her skin in places all over her body, she opened her eyes and spotted her landing. Had it not been for the fact that she'd taken up free running as a way to get back into shape after Cassidy was born, she probably wouldn't have been so comfortable with the fact that she was dropping roughly fifteen feet to very solid ground. As it was, she'd dropped free running to start training with Chloe and had never tried a jump quite so high, especially not with her life on the line. Comfortable may have been the wrong word to use.

The seconds before she hit the ground were agonizingly long as the gunmen that had been trying to stay at least a little bit hidden were no longer trying, and guns were being pointed at her as she fell. The element of surprise seemed to have bought her enough time for them not to start shooting and tucking into a ball, she rolled out of the jump as she'd been trained and came up swinging, smashing the baseball bat into the forearms of the gunman she'd landed next to, the crack of the bones in his arms and his subsequent crying out something Lois considered a successful first strike.

Spinning, she brought the bat around into the chest of another man, felling him at least for the moment. Not wanting to take a chance, she dove from where she was away from the third man, rolling behind a tree. She didn't take the time to check and see how much damage she'd done, instead running into the backyard and tossing the bat over the fence before climbing over it. No shots fired yet, which was a plus.

Hearing yelling behind her, she picked up the pace a bit, jumping another fence into the yard of somebody else she wasn't familiar with. Jogging through the house's backyard, she found the gate and took a quick peek out before exiting the yard and making her way to the sidewalk. Crossing the street, she was about to stop jogging and start walking when she heard squealing wheels coming around the corner behind her, and without looking back burst into a run again. Barely having time to think, she had to dive out of the way of bullets making a path through where her feet had been. Getting up, she tossed the bat over and jumped another fence, getting very tired of having to do so. She'd have been happy to fight them, really; even the two months of training with Chloe had taken her martial arts skills to places she never thought they'd be. That didn't mean she was going to be any good using a bat against men with automatic weapons.

"I just have to piss people off," she ground out as she jumped another fence, deciding to stick to yards for the time being. With her free hand she checked all her pockets to see if she had anything of use in them, namely her phone, which she did not. It was sitting in her purse, which was probably now turned to ash along with her house. "I just HAVE to goad them into retaliation by exposing their wrongdoings. Why couldn't I be happy with a quiet, normal life? Oh yeah, because I'd get bored. What I wouldn't do to be bored right now." Tossing the bat over another fence, she jumped and pulled herself over, only to find herself staring at a group of people. She didn't have time to stop and chat, but she couldn't leave these people just standing here in case she was being followed. Picking up the bat as she walked towards them, she held her hands out to try and keep them from doing anything rash. "My name is Lois Lane and for you own safety, you need to get inside and lock the doors." God, she felt ridiculous having to tell people to go inside to be safe from gunmen that were chasing her.

"Lois Lane?" a man asked. "From the_ Daily Planet_?"

"Yes, but we don't have time for a Q&A. Get inside, now! Don't walk, run, and lock the doors!"

"But they said not to panic..."

God, did she not have time for this. "Fine, don't panic, but get inside!" She started running, but stopped as she got to another fence. Turning around, she met numerous worried eyes that weren't moving. "Do any of you have a phone I can borrow?"

"Why do you need a phone?"

"I have people following me; wouldn't be jumping fences and running through yards otherwise. So, anybody have a phone, or should I borrow one from the next group of people I see?"

"Here," a kid called, tossing her his phone. "I've been wanting a new one anyway."

"Thank you. Now get inside!" Shoving the phone in her pocket, she jumped the fence and continued on her way. Who the hell had told them not to panic? What had happened that there was something to panic about? No, that could wait. She was on the run for her life, so she should probably focus on that for the moment. No sense on worrying about other things happening in the world, no matter how much she was regretting that she wasn't at work on a Sunday to get the scoop on whatever it was.

After jumping another fence, Lois found that she'd come to the end of the street. She could either start retracing her steps or take the risk of going out into a more open area. Without much mental debate, Lois jumped one last fence, deciding to hide in plain sight instead of putting other people in danger by running through their yards, so close to the houses where they lived and raised their families. Were it her she would have been tempted to beat the tar out of somebody putting her family in that kind of danger, not to mention the people chasing that person.

Ducking into some bushes, Lois dropped to one knee to get a moment of rest, pulling the phone she had acquired out of her pocket. Dialing Chloe's cell number, she trapped the phone between her ear and shoulder as she looked around, making sure that nobody was looking at her. Not a lot of people out and about, but it was a fairly warm evening. Straight to voicemail. "Chloe, it's Lois. I'm on the run; they torched the house, probably Molotov cocktails from the lack of explosion but how quickly the fire spread. Keep Jacob and Cassidy safe at all costs. Don't come looking for me. Clark won't be much help either; he's in India helping with the flooding." Lois swallowed, keeping her eyes from resting on one spot or another, always keeping track of movements. "You know what to do if something happens to me. And if nothing happens, well, this has been a good reminder for if something does happen to me. Tell them I love them, and I love you too."

Pulling the phone from where she held it, she ended the call and stuffed it back in her pocket. Taking one last look around, Lois got a good grip on the bat and removed herself from her spot in the bushes. Where were a hat and sunglasses when she needed them? Oh, right. They were burning in her house along with all her other worldly possessions she wasn't currently wearing. As if on cue, she heard sirens. It seemed that they should have been called and arrived sooner, but apparently her neighbors had been a little busy to notice the burning house next to theirs. This is why Clark did all the talking to them and she did most of the not paying attention to what they were saying. It could be that they weren't home, but that was a lot of people not being home to notice that her house was on fire.

Ok, so this was just misplaced rage. But call the damn fire department a little sooner!

Jogging down the sidewalk, Lois would have given anything right about now to have Superman available to her. She was always happy when Clark could go to other parts of the world and help people, but at the moment she was feeling a bit selfish. Having her house burned down and being on the run from the people that did it tended to do that to her.

Being on the run was nothing new to her; she'd done this a hundred times by the time she'd turned thirty. Losing her house, though... she hadn't ever felt connected to a house until she'd met the Kent family and stayed in their farmhouse. She still felt a connection to that place. But having made a life with Clark, having started a family, he had wanted to raise their children with a yard to play in, with trees around them. Lois understood that. Clark had grown up in a house, with not only a yard but a farm around him, with plenty of trees. She had never been anywhere more than a year or two at once after her mom had died. She hadn't really cared if they had raised Jacob, since this was pre-Cassidy, in the city or suburbs, so when Clark had told her he wanted to get a house she had said all right. Clark being Clark, he had already found a few houses he wanted her to look at, and knowing what she liked and wanted out of a place to live he had found houses she really liked.

Lois sighed, pulling herself back into the present. Those memories weren't going to do anything except piss her off, both because her house was burning and because she'd allowed herself to get attached to a place. It used to be a mistake that she knew better than to make. She blamed Clark, and Martha, and to a lesser extent, Chloe. If Chloe hadn't faked her death, making her go to Smallville, she never would have met the Kent family and never would have gotten so attached to their farm. That had just gotten her started on a slippery slope of getting attached to places and absolutely none of this was pertinent to her situation. She'd have to mourn her home later.

Taking a long look to both her left and her right, she spotted three men in long coats, walking along slowly and doing their best not to look suspicious, which always made people look suspicious. Either they were impervious to the weather or these were some of or the guys that had attacked her. Looking around, she didn't see any cars tailing them discretely. Granted, these were people that had already burned down a house and taken shots at her in broad daylight, so discrete probably wasn't a problem for them. The question was, Why? Why had they done it all during the day instead of waiting for night? It didn't make any sense, at least not tactically. It didn't seem to add up.

Shoving her hand in her pocket, Lois pulled out the phone and was about to dial 911 when she stopped herself. Would doing so really help? They had people nearby, obviously, at her house, but if patrolmen started slowly going through the neighborhood, it wouldn't do much but put them in danger of getting into a shootout in the middle of the neighborhood. Then again, it wouldn't hurt to have some backup in a situation like this. Being on the run alone was never any fun. She would just have to apologize to Detective Sawyer for putting cops in danger.

Getting out of sight, Lois dialed and held the phone to her ear. "We're sorry, all lines are busy right now. Please try your call again later."

Frowning, she glanced at the phone and made sure that she'd actually dialed the right number. Confirming that she had, she ended the call and tried again, getting the same response. "What the hell?" she mumbled, trying once more just to make sure that she wasn't losing her mind. It really was just going to be one of those days where absolutely nothing went right. She hated those days.

Deciding to be proactive instead of reactive for the first time since she had sent Jacob and Cassidy into the city with Chloe so she could work, Lois put the phone back in her pocket and grabbed the bat. No more running. She was going to fight, and she was going to fight on her own terms. Pull them in close so that their guns aren't any help, and then let the training she had been doing with Chloe take over. It was all she could do, and she was done running.

Moving from where she'd hidden herself from sight, she took a deep breath and spotted the three men walking away from her. "Hey, ass holes! I'm over here!"

They all stopped and spun around, spotting her as she stood there. When none of them pulled a gun right away, Lois started reassessing the discrete factor. She had expected them to turn and shoot. One of them started reaching underneath his coat, but was stopped by another. Maybe that had been the guy that had shot at her from the car instead of it being a group effort. There was no question that they wanted her dead, but maybe killing her out in the wide open for everyone to see was too much, even for these guys. One way or another they had picked up their pace, and no longer was the one guy holding the other back. Retreating a bit, Lois found a little open area where she could make her stand, and hid herself on the edge of it behind a tree. Hearing quick footsteps coming her way, she sent her love to her kids before stepping out.

As she had suspected, the one had come at a run ahead of the other two, a pistol in his hand. Jumping to her left as he spotted her, she rolled to her feet swinging the bat, hitting the gun and sending it flying. Swinging it again, she caught only air but spun with the momentum of the heavy wooden bat into a kick, catching the man at the bottom of the rib cage and sending him sprawling. She barely had time to move out of the way as the other two arrived, swinging with knives in hand instead of guns. Stepping back, she tossed the bat out of the way, freeing up her hands to deal with what was coming. One came at her, swinging wildly. Avoiding the slashes, she stepped inside his reach and hit his shoulder her the palm of her hand, jarring it and causing him to cry out, though she couldn't tell if she'd dislocated it. She took another step in and drove her knee as hard as she could into his groin. He slumped to the ground without much ceremony.

Turning, she spotted the other knife wielder, standing back a bit, and the first man she had laid out, slowly but surely getting back up. Before that one could pick up his gun and start shooting, Lois charged them, sending them backpedaling.

Wanting to take out the man with the knife first, Lois jumped, tackling him. Grabbing the wrist of his knife hand, she held it out at arms length and hit him in the face with an elbow, feeling his nose crack. She was about to nail him again when she was hit from the side, tackled by the other man. They rolled for a second before separating, getting to their feet. Lois gulped in a couple breaths before he came at her, throwing in a more controlled manner than the men that had possessed weapons. It was a style that Chloe had shown her. More importantly, it was a style that Chloe had shown her had weaknesses and how to exploit them. Slowly giving ground, Lois waited for her spot, and found it a second later, striking out and connecting with his jaw. She came around with a left hook to the other side of his jaw before finishing him off with a kick aimed just below his ribs, where if nothing else it would knock the air out of him and put him down for a couple minutes.

Breathing deeply, Lois walked over to where the last conscious attacker was, holding his broken nose and trying to get up. She got over to him and kicked him in the stomach, flattening him out. Pushing him over with her foot, she looked down on him for a second before she kicked him as hard as she could in his side. "That's because I don't like you." When he tried to roll over again, Lois kicked him in the head, rendering him unconscious. "And that's for my house." Maybe that had been a little much, but it really felt good.

Pulling a hand back through her hair, she bent down and grabbed the pistol that the first man had dropped, and after checking the clip shoved it in the waistband of her pants. On a day like this, it certainly wouldn't hurt to have a last resort around, and it was just plain stupid to leave a gun lying around when there were people trying to kill her. Walking away from the clearing and the laid out attackers after catching her breath, Lois rubbed at her neck for a second before hearing a screeching of tires. Looking off to her left, a nondescript SUV came around the corner going way too quickly, and was driving right for her. Cursing under her breath, Lois retreated back into the clearing, taking a second to think before taking off towards in the opposite direction from where the car was coming. This just wasn't her day.


	3. Chapter 3

- Chapter 3

The ringing in her ears was deafening.

Coughing dust out of her lungs, Chloe rolled onto her side, hacking and wheezing before she could finally pull in an even breath without it coming out and feeling like her lungs were soon to follow. Feeling all over herself, she found more small cuts and scrapes than she could count. The right side of her head felt like it was going to turn into a lump, and it seemed entirely likely she was going to be nursing a headache for days. After making sure that she was still all there, she started rubbing at her ears, but she couldn't get the ringing to stop. Opening her eyes, the world outside of her head looked as fuzzy as her brain felt. The only really clear sense she had was a sense of pain. No, her sense of smell was working, too, because she could distinctly smell the smoke and dust in the air.

What the hell happened? She'd just gone in to get ice cream with Jacob and Cassidy, and then suddenly she was fighting some guy and running as the bomb he had strapped to his chest was about to explode. All of that did seem to explain why she felt like she'd just taken the beating of her life and was on the ground next to a car with a person sized dent in its side. The more she thought about it she was feeling exceptionally fortunate that there wasn't a car sized dent in the side of her head. Now all she needed to figure out is why a suicide bomber had hit an ice cream shop in Metropolis almost immediately after she'd gone inside. Jacob and Cassidy had to be ok. Could he run all the way to Smallville while carrying his sister?

It couldn't have been very long since the explosion; there were no sirens to indicate medical, fire or police personnel at or near the scene. Looking around, she didn't see anybody, but that didn't mean they weren't looking. There had probably been a dozen people in the ice cream parlor, and it didn't seem likely that they'd all run as far as possible without stopping when they'd heard the explosion. She was more curious than most, she'd found, but it seemed likely that when an explosion happened people were going to get curious. If anybody had been looking it would be the people that had set up the suicide bomber, assuming he wasn't a random crazy. Definitely past time to move, because she didn't even have a time frame for how long she'd been knocked out.

Making herself stop rubbing at her ears, as it was having no effect on the insistent ringing, she rolled to her back from her side and sat up slowly. Out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of the building, or at least the smoking ruin that was left of its front. What a waste of good ice cream. Fortunately, all the people had been let out, which was giant clue number two that whatever had happened had been aimed at her.

This seemed like exactly what she'd been missing in life: the external chaos to match the internal.

Car alarms. Rubbing at her ears again, Chloe finally started hearing car alarms going off all around her. The explosion had probably set off every one for a city block. Despite being the second most annoying sound behind alarm clocks, it may have been the most beautiful sound she had ever heard, especially considering it was replacing a sound that was quickly moving up her annoying sounds list.

Car alarms but no sirens, at least none within her limited range of hearing. Either nobody had called yet, which seemed unlikely, or she just had the bad luck of being hit with the business end of an explosion when no police, fire fighters or paramedics were available. That sounded a lot like her luck.

Standing up, Chloe gasped as she put weight on her right leg, pain shooting through her hip. That must have been where she'd taken the brunt of the impact when she'd been thrown into the car. Running her free hand through her hair, she ruffled it a few times to knock out the dust and bits of rubble that had settled there after the explosion. Allowing herself a few seconds to stretch out her hip, she kept an eye on the area, not seeing anybody else, which was getting to be more strange than normal. This wasn't the busiest part of the city but shouldn't the people in the immediate area be coming out of the stores to see what's going on?

Deciding it was time to make a discrete exit from an indiscrete area, Chloe hobbled away down the sidewalk, still rubbing at her hip which still hurt like hell but was at least loosening up. There was going to be a very large bruise in the near future, if there wasn't one already. And then there were the cuts and scrapes that adorned her. The day she goes out in shorts and a tank top because Lois needs her to pick up the kids sooner rather than later just has to be the day somebody tries to blow her up.

Stopping to look around, Chloe found herself a block away from a pharmacy, and made her way there. Going inside, she hobbled to the front counter and found three employees huddled around a TV, oblivious to her presence. Shaking her head, she walked around until she found some cotton balls and peroxide for her cuts and scrapes, and some painkillers for her hip. Walking back to the front counter, she placed her items down in font of herself and cleared her throat until one of the people finally noticed her, and quickly took notice of how she looked.

"Were you in one of the explosions?"

Chloe blinked a couple times before responding. "_One of_? How many were there?"

"Twelve bombs went off in quick succession around New Troy. We heard the boom from the nearest one, which was one of the smaller ones they say, but the emergency system came on and asked that everybody in the city stay inside and not to panic. So, were you in it?"

Twelve? What the hell had happened? Was the city under attack from somebody? That was stupid question, because obviously it was under attack, but who the hell had the man power to arrange twelve nearly simultaneous bombings? That certainly explained why there had been no emergency personnel around. Pushing her thoughts aside, Chloe answered the question at hand. "Uh, no, I wasn't. I was driving by when it went off, though. Drove into another car as a result and got covered by the falling dust and bits of debris because I had my windows down." Sticking her hand in her pocket, Chloe pulled out a ten that would have been used for ice cream and dropped it on the counter. "That enough?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

He put it all in a bag for her and Chloe walked out of the pharmacy, hobbling down the sidewalk towards Centennial Park. It was only a few blocks away, and had benches where she could sit and think, not to mention clean up a little bit. Stopping for a second, she popped open the bottle of painkillers and swallowed a couple before putting it in her pocket and taking off towards the park again. Ten minutes later she flopped down on a bench and tossed her supplies down next to herself.

Why would anybody against strike Metropolis? They knew it was Superman's city and... and Superman wasn't in Metropolis. He was in India, helping with the cleanup of a broken dam. But they couldn't have organized such a big effort to detonate twelve bombs in the city within hours, especially because she hadn't heard anything about him being there until Lois had told her. Sad as it was, events like that didn't always get more than a two minute segment every other hour on the national news channels.

After tearing open the bag of cotton balls, she twisted the top off the peroxide and wetted one of the balls, going about the business of disinfecting all the cuts she could find. Twenty-three cotton balls and about fifty grimaces later she was cleaned up, and had the stinging pain of peroxide all over her body as proof. Why did the old reliable of cleaning cuts have to hurt like hell? Why was she thinking about this?

Twelve bombs. Clark out of Metropolis. The only name that popped into her mind with the ability to do that was Lex Luthor. He was in jail, but that was hardly enough to keep him from putting something like this together. The only question was how. There would be a question of why, except she knew the why: Lex wanted her dead because she had almost killed him. She wouldn't doubt that he wanted Lois and Clark gone, too, for having put him in jail. The man was a professional at holding a grudge, not to mention paying people back for any slight. Attempting to kill him and putting him in jail were probably pretty major slights in his book, though she doubted there was a small one. Unfortunately Clark was in India and she was currently without a phone with which to contact Lois and warn her, though with any luck she had taken a writing break and turned on the news for a few minutes.

Holy crap, she needed to get in touch with Lois! She had sent the kids running off to the farm without thought. She needed to let Lois know so she could call Martha and make sure that they got there ok. Damn, why hadn't she thought to buy a disposable phone when she'd been in the pharmacy? Big honkin' situation and here she was forgetting family emergency protocols. Shaking off the disappointment in herself, Chloe focused on the task at hand. She needed to get in touch with Lois and let her know that she was safe and she'd sent Jacob and Cassidy to the farm. She needed to find out as much as she could about what was going on in the city, too. And how whoever had perpetrated the attacks, be it Lex or somebody else, had managed to pull it off. So, really, just a few things. Removing her left shoe, she reached in and pulled out a fifty dollar bill from under the sole, stuffing it in her pocket. One protocol she couldn't forget unless she forgot to wear her shoes.

Getting up from the bench, Chloe grabbed her supplies and started hobbling back from the way she had come, dropping the remaining cotton balls and peroxide in a garbage can as she passed one. As she got out of the park, it struck her just how quiet the city was, not counting the sirens she could hear in the distance, which never happened. Admittedly, twelve bombs had never gone off in the city before, but the quiet was almost deafening when one was used to the city being loud and busy. She limped along slowly, going back the way she'd come to the park until she found a store that looked like it would sell disposable phones and walked inside, searching through a few aisles until she found what she was looking for. Grabbing one off the shelf, she walked back to the counter and paid for it with the money she had pocketed before stepping outside, frowning at the sounds of the sirens before breaking out the phone and dialing Lois at the house. After about twelve rings and the answering machine not even picking up, Chloe tried her cell phone, but it went straight to voice mail.

"Lois, it's Chloe. A lot going on and all of it's big. Call Martha, then call me back at the number that shows up on the caller ID. Love you." Ending the call, Chloe thought for a second before dialing another number.

"This is Perry White."

"Perry, hey! It's Chloe Sullivan."

"Chloe? I guess your inner journalist won out and you want back in the game on a day like this. It'll have to be freelance for the online edition, but I'll take any information you have."

Shifting the phone from one hand to the other, she started walking down the sidewalk before ducking into an alley between buildings. "Actually, I need help. I know that twelve bombs went off, and I nearly got to know the one that went off in an ice cream shop personally, but I need more information and you're who I know that has info. When and where did each go off?"

"There was the ice cream parlor you mentioned, one at police headquarters which killed at least twelve and two more bombs went off at other stations, and three in apartment high rises downtown with who knows how many casualties. There were two at the docks which has shut down river traffic, one at Met General, one at City Hall and the last took out the largest fire station downtown. All of them went off within about thirty seconds of each other, starting with the ice cream parlor. There are a lot of strategic points to this attack, Chloe, not counting the ice cream parlor. Have you heard any talk about what why that place?"

"Any other time I'd say to induce fear and panic, but today I'd say it's because I was there, Perry," Chloe said. "I have an idea, with no proof except that one bomb went off somewhere that had no point to it. You take out police, firemen, doctors, leadership and trade, and then scare the hell out of people by attacking them directly. And then one just happens to be right where I am, a suicide bomber no less, and I barely got out. It has to be Lex, Perry."

"We'll get to that in a second. Are you all right?"

Slumping back up against the wall of a building, Chloe grimaced as she shifter and took some weight off her sore hip. "Cuts, bruises, very sore hip and probably a concussion, so nothing I haven't dealt with a hundred times before."

"What is it with you and Lane getting concussions?"

"Must be a genetic predisposition. Is there speculation in the media about who did this?"

"Of course, but it's all people throwing out the names of various terrorist organizations from every corner of the Middle East and southern Asia. No one in their right mind would say Lex Luthor, and I have to say it's a stretch. Would he really destroy the infrastructure of the city just to get revenge?"

"This is the same man that abducted second generation meteor infected and did experiments on them, Perry. I'd hardly put it past him, though this is a little more of a public atrocity than he usual commits. Nothing else makes sense, though. The son of a bitch had a suicide bomber following me and as soon as his bomb went off the others were triggered, one after the other." Scrubbing a hand through her hair, Chloe checked her watch, only to find that the hands had been knocked off and the glass face cracked. Taking it off, she tossed it in a nearby garbage can. "What time is it, Perry?"

"Nearly seven. The National Guard put a curfew in place about twenty minutes ago, so at sunset if you're still outside they're going to arrest you. Do you have anywhere you can stay the night?"

"I'll have to find a cheap hotel or something. I bet somebody is giving rooms away."

"I have a better idea. Where are you at?"

"About four blocks from the ice cream place, near Centennial Park."

"Ok. Do you remember where the Planet safe house is?"

"Yeah, about a ten minute walk east of here, I think. Is the key still in the same spot?"

"It is. Let me take care of something, make sure this place won't fall apart while I'm gone and I'll meet you there in half an hour. Stay safe, Chloe, and if you hear from Lois or Clark tell them to call me ASAP!"

With that the line went dead, and Chloe ended her side of the call. After pocketing the phone, she decided to keep her hip loose and started jogging, coming out of the alley and onto the sidewalk. Fighting a wince with each step and wishing the painkillers would kill more of the pain, she started a mental exercise she had learned to minimize the pain. As much as she had thought meditation wouldn't be her thing, the more she had used it on her travels the more she had liked it. Even when moving like she was, she had learned to drown everything out and keep herself focused, though she had never had to try it in a situation such as she had with her hip. It helped, but wasn't perfect.

Before she knew it, she was standing in front of the safe house. It was an unassuming place in the middle of a row of houses, kept up enough so that nobody would think that it was uninhabited most of the time. Searching the steps up to the door, she knocked a few places before she found the hollow rock built into the stone steps and pulled the key out from under it. She let herself in, flipping on some lights before heading for the bathroom to give herself the once over.

The mirror made her look worse than she felt.

Her right cheek and temple were purple, and there was a cut on her left cheek she hadn't even noticed. She was still coated in dust and debris, too. Deciding it would do some good to get clean, she turned on the hot water and peeled off her clothes, starting the shower and getting in. She let the water run over her face and body, the cuts stinging freshly once again. Ignoring them, she rinsed all the dust off herself before stepping out. Drying off with a towel from under the sink, she put her clothes back on walked out to the living room, flopping down on the couch. Rubbing at her eyes, Chloe didn't even bother to get up when she heard the door open and close. "I'm in here, Perry."

A second later he came into the living room, carrying a bag and sitting down in a chair across from her. "You look like hell, Sullivan."

"Been a hellish day, Chief."

"That it has." It surprised her not only that he didn't react to her calling him Chief, but that she'd even done so. Apparently being away from the _Planet_ didn't mean she'd broken old habits. He held the bag out, and Chloe took it from him. "I figured you could use some coffee and a sandwich."

"You have no idea." Pulling the sandwich out, she took a big bite, reveling in the taste of a meatball sub before she pulled out the coffee and took a quick sip. "You're the best, Perry."

"Hold off on that. Look, there's something I had a buddy of mine that owed me a favor do. I'm not sure you'll like what I did, but it seemed prudent with what appears to be a bastard with money and people at his disposal. It's for your protection."

"Where does your buddy work, Perry?"

"Coroner's office. I had you declared dead and added to the list of casualties from the bombings."

For a moment Chloe forgot to keep chewing, and simply stared at him with food in her mouth. After swallowing, Chloe put the sandwich down so she could stare without having to think about dropping it in her lap. "Perry, what the hell! I don't wanna be dead! I've been declared dead twice before and it doesn't work for me!"

"Look, Sullivan, if you want to keep fighting, you have to be under the radar. If people think you're dead, even people that are capable of doing what happened today, they aren't going to be looking for you, at least not very hard."

"If it gets reported I'm dead and Lois finds out she is going to go nuclear on anybody she finds that could have anything to do with what happened today!"

"Then I suggest getting in touch with her sooner rather than later. Have you had any luck with that?"

"I only tried once, at the house and on her cell, and I struck out. I take it you did too?" Perry nodded, and Chloe sighed. "We need to get in touch with her, and Clark. Sooner rather than later, as you put it. They can definitely help with the details."

"In the meantime, I need to get back to the Planet before the curfew. We're going to be pulling an all nighter to get as many copies delivered as we can tomorrow morning once curfew is lifted at sunup. You call me if you need anything."

Chloe nodded and Perry smiled at her before standing up and walking out of the house. Settling back into the couch, Chloe kicked off her shoes and put her feet up. Figuring she needed rest for a clear mind, she let herself drift off to sleep with the thought that once she could get in contact with Lois, wherever she was, things would brighten up.


	4. Chapter 4

- Chapter 4

Working as hard as he could just to sit up, Clark fought the urge to empty his stomach as he got into a position where he wasn't staring at the ceiling of the airplane. If not for the kryptonite glowing strongly on the walls, it would have been pitch black. It also would have been a hell of a lot easier for him to escape, he figured.

"This might be one of the saddest things that I've ever seen." The voice coming from behind him, Clark labored to turn himself and face the taunter. Slowly but surely, one excruciating movement after another, he got himself turned and found himself staring at a nondescript man sitting next to the door. "Seriously. Watchin' you try to get up hurts me, right here," he said, pointing to his heart.

"I looked up to you, ya know? In those first couple years, when you were all bright and shiny and the greatest thing since sliced bread and free internet porn, I drank the kool-aid. Then there was a little incident... well, I think you probably remember it, since so few people seem to die on your watch, but let me refresh your memory on the off chance you don't.

"Her name was Sharon Tate, my wife of three months, and she was killed in a mugging gone bad because she yelled out your name. When you didn't show the guy decided he didn't like somebody trying to get him caught and shot her three times in the heart. Sharon was _my_ heart, Superman. Sharon was the reason I got up in the morning and felt like I had a reason for being on this planet. And in all the time it took to fire a gun three times, that was all gone. So I had to ask myself, Why Sharon? Why was she the one person you couldn't save? And then I checked the news, and the answer was staring me in the face: you were in Taiwan helping typhoon victims. _Taiwan_, of all places! I'm not some xenophobic nut that thinks everybody that isn't a born and bred American can go to hell, but you should have been in Metropolis! You should have been there to help her!" he yelled, jumping up out of his chair. He stalked over and Clark braced himself against getting struck as best he could, but no strike came.

"When you become the protector of a city, you don't go traipsing off to other places and forget about your responsibilities! You don't leave unless you're damn sure that the city is safe, that people aren't going to suffer while you're gone! My wife died because you were trying to help those fucking people that could have helped themselves, but you just wanted some God damn goodwill thrown your way! They've had typhoons before and they were fine, so they sure as hell didn't need you! _Sharon_ needed you!"

Wincing as he breathed, Clark couldn't help himself. "I'm sorry. I wish I could save everybody, but even I can't be everywhere at once. Metropolis is my city, but other places need my help too. I have to help the rest of the world."

"I think this might just be something we'll have to disagree on, Superman. To tell you the truth, I'm not surprised you see it that way. You're wrong, though." Using his foot, the man pushed Clark over onto his back again, this time closer to the wall. A fresh dose of pain coursed through him, causing him to gasp. "I learned the hard way that Superman isn't reliable protection, that he isn't there when you really need him. And I think pretty soon the rest of Metropolis is going to feel the same way."

"Where are we going?" Clark asked, unable to sit up at the moment as he fought the effects of the kryptonite simply to stay conscious. Passing out would be a lot simpler, and not noticing all the pain he was in would be great, but he needed to know what was going on.

"We're going back home. Not directly, due to events you currently aren't privy to, but we'll get there within the day."

"What is it that I don't know about, Mr. Tate?"

"Please, call me Drew. With the amount of time we're going to be spending together in the near future, I think we should be on a first name basis. Do you mind if I call you Kal, or should I refer to you as Supes? I always thought Kal-El was a very regal sounding name, and it shortens nicely. You know what, I think I'll go with Kal."

"If you have to use something other than Superman, I'd prefer Mr. El." Clark had known Lois had rubbed off on him a lot over the years, but he didn't think he had realized just how much until that answer. Next time he saw her he'd have to come clean about that.

"You're funnier than I thought, or at least more sarcastic. More durable, too. After the beating they gave you and all this exposure to kryptonite, everybody thought you'd have been out cold all the way back. You're a tough one, Kal."

Clark gritted his teeth as a fresh wave of pain shot through his arm as he tried to move it, accidentally placing it closer to the kryptonite in the wall of the plane. "Always been accused of being too stubborn for my own good." He didn't choose to go on and say that his stubborn streak wasn't even a patch on his wife's, keeping the thought of Lois to himself. He loved that stubborn streak she had. "Who organized all this?"

"What? You don't think it was little ol' me that put this together?"

"Takes money for something like this. Sharon Tate was married to a Metropolis Police detective."

"So you do remember her?" Clark nodded. "No consolation, but at least you have the decency to keep in mind those you failed. Anyway, I never planned to take credit for this whole scheme so let me give credit where credit is due. This is all the work of Mr. Stanton. No first name, and I'm not entirely sure if that's his actual last name, but that's the only name I have. Ring any bells?"

Clark thought for a moment, trying to remember if he knew anybody with the last name Stanton. One name came to mind, but he quickly dismissed it. "No bells that would fit this situation." Taking a deep breath, Clark did his best to move himself away from the wall, gaining a few inches of precious space away from the kryptonite. Time for something else to keep him distracted. "Why would a police detective get into something like this?"

"Former police detective. I had a hard time dealing with my grief and got a little over zealous with my stun gun one night about two months after Sharon was killed. To free themselves of the P.R. nightmare, and since it was about the fourth time an incident like that had happened in a year, they decided to rid themselves of me as an example of others. Went into a bit of a tailspin after that, which led to me meeting Mr. Stanton's men a couple years ago. Life's been a lot better since then."

"Why?"

"Why?" Drew laughed and walked over to him, sitting down on the floor. "Well, let's use your current situation as an allegory. I was trapped somewhere that was toxic to me. I could barely leave my apartment, and when I did all I wanted was to go back home. Now imagine meeting somebody that could not only get you out of here, but put you face to face with the person responsible for this whole thing. Would that make your life better or worse?"

"All this Mr. Stanton promised was to put you face to face with me?"

"Not only that, but I get a ring side seat while everything happens! I get to watch you be just as powerless as a tiny little baby while the whole plan unfolds."

"What plan?"

"Well, _Kal_, it goes a little something like this: we capture you and then bomb the hell out of Metropolis. The bombs went off after we captured you, and should ruin city infrastructure, leaving it a mess. When Superman doesn't come to the rescue, not helping all the people in trouble and letting the city fend for itself, people are going to get pissed off. They're going to ask 'Where's Superman? Why isn't he helping us?' Some of that will be natural curiosity, but mostly it'll be because we have people in the city to incite public outrage against you. The masses of morons will blame you for everything."

"The people of Metropolis are smarter than that."

"It isn't about brains, man, it's about blame! People always want somebody to blame, and when the person they relied on to protect them isn't doing that they're going to blame him." He pointed to himself. "I present to you, exhibit A." Drew laid down on his back next to him, crossing his arms behind his head to use as a pillow. "And all the while you'll be with us. The city will rebuild and remember what a world without Superman is like. Sure, there might be a little more crime, but they won't rely on you anymore. They won't need you anymore. Then, we'll let you go. There's no need to kill you. For all intents and purposes, your time in Metropolis will be over. The rest of the world can have you, for all we care. We just want you out of our city. Metropolis is better off without you, and when everybody believes that, being the boy scout you are you'll give up your position as Protector and fly off into the sunset to do your thing in the rest of the world. Good riddance."

"But what's to stop you from doing this again, from bombing another city if your bleak future actually happened?"

"Good question, and one I don't have an answer to. All I can say is that once you're out of Metropolis, I could care less what you or Mr. Stanton do. Metropolis will be home again, the home that I loved. I may not have Sharon anymore, but I'm getting closure, and that's all I'm worried about."

* * *

><p>Taking a few steps, the attacker suddenly flew into action, throwing move after move at her. Lois blocked them all before going on the offensive herself, and finding a lot more success than her counterpart did. All the times Chloe had made her train when tired were really paying off. Sidestepping a wild kick, she nailed him right under the ribs as his momentum carried him towards her. He doubled over and Lois moved quickly, ramming her knee into his face. He crumpled to the ground in an unconscious heap, leaving her standing over him.<p>

Not wanting to waste any time, Lois started jogging again, warily heading back out towards the street. It seemed like half the time she did this it ended up with her having to fight off two or three guys doing their best to kill her. Unfortunately, she needed to get to the street so that she could get a car and get away from this mess. Being somewhere else would hopefully put distance between her and the people that really didn't like her, or at least the people being paid not to like her. Spotting a car parked a few houses away, Lois picked up her pace and reached it a few seconds later. Spotting that it was a new looking BMW, Lois wasn't pleased with the fact that she was going to have to steal a car, but at least she was at least going to steal something good. There was always the chance of a car alarm, in which case she was going to be running instead of jogging, but that was the chance she took. With a quick scan of the area to make sure nobody was looking, she pulled the gun out from where she was stashing it and flipped it around so she was holding the barrel. Pulling it back, she swung as hard as she could at the back driver's side window and it shattered.

No alarm. Of course, there was the loud sound of breaking glass, which probably wasn't helpful. Reaching inside she unlocked the door and opened it, pulling the door shut as she got inside. Crawling into the driver's seat and putting the gun down on the passenger seat, she brushed away some glass and put the car in neutral before starting work on actually getting the car going. After a few attempts she hit paydirt, the car starting up with a quiet hum. Putting it into gear, Lois had to hold back from flooring the gas pedal. Nothing would scream 'Here I am!' to the bad guys more than a car with a broken back window burning rubber. Also, hitting somebody with a car that she'd just stolen didn't seem like the greatest idea in the world. It didn't even seem like a good idea if she was hitting somebody with her own car unless it was one of the people chasing her.

There couldn't be that many of them left that she hadn't already fought. Those first few had all probably recovered from their unconscious states, but based on the two cars and the seven others she had laid out in the past two hours, she estimated no more than twelve people trailing her. At this very moment, there were probably four or five. Hopefully, now that she had acquired a car, that number would drop to zero.

Feeling something run slowly down her cheek, Lois reached up and found that she'd been cut in that last confrontation. Using the sleeve of her t-shirt, she wiped the blood off and tried to staunch the flow so she didn't have to mess with it every thirty seconds. It must not have been a big cut if she just now noticing the blood, and with as much as she was aching from taking punches and having muscles that wanted nothing more than to rest for a week, she wasn't surprised she hadn't noticed it.

Pulling up to a stop sign, Lois turned left and continued on towards the highway. Suddenly, she realized it was almost dark. When had that happened? Just how long had she been on the run? Looking around the dash a second, she turned on the headlights, allowing herself to see the road ahead. Nothing had changed more with age than her night vision, which she found very strange considering how much time she had spent in dark rooms being held hostage over the years. The fact that she'd been running on adrenaline for the past couple hours must have kept her eyes sharper than they usually were this close to dusk.

With a quick look off to her left, Lois noted the distinct lack of cars on the road as she merged onto the access road, then again onto the highway towards the city. In fact, in what was a normally busy neighborhood, she had been the only car on the streets. That was unheard of, considering they had lived there almost five years and she usually couldn't go twenty seconds on the streets near her house without seeing another car unless it was the middle of the night. And even more so, the highway was _never _empty, but she was alone on the road. What the hell could have happened to cause totally empty roads? Was there road work somewhere and they had missed closing off an entry? That wouldn't explain the empty roads near the charred remains of her house, though. She couldn't remember an occasion where the whole highway was shut down, not even during an emergency requiring Superman assistance. It was the main road into the city from the slew of suburban neighborhoods they lived in the middle of, as vital to city activity as a vein bringing blood back to the heart.

Catching a reflection of light in the mirror, Lois couldn't tell if it was headlights or a street light. Given the current state of traffic, it was far more likely that she'd just caught a glimpse of a couple street lights looking like headlights. Reaching over to turn on the radio, she found herself pushing at what was left of a radio unit that had had its faceplate removed. Perfect. The one way she thought she'd had to find out what was going on in the world, short of calling Martha or Perry since Chloe wasn't answering and Clark was in India, was of no use to her.

Adjusting her body a bit, she got the phone out of her pocket and started dialing Perry, figuring she shouldn't worry Martha with everything just yet. She decided to try his office first, unable to remember his cell number. She dialed and put the phone to her ear.

"_Daily Planet_ building."

Why in the world would Perry's direct line go to the receptionist? Perry didn't like to work weekends, but more often than not he liked to pay a Sunday visit, which usually turned into being there most of Sunday evening. "Dana, hey, this is Lois. Did I catch the office on a Sunday night where Perry isn't in?"

"Lois! Mr. White has been trying to reach you all afternoon and evening! Where are you?"

"Long story for later. Is Perry in?"

"No, he had to go out for a little while but he should be back soon, what with the curfew being enacted."

"Curfew?" Lois asked incredulously. "What curfew?"

"After everything that happened in the city this afternoon they had to put one in place, at least for tonight. Hadn't you heard about that?"

"I've had a very long day, Dana, and haven't had a chance to catch the latest happenings in the city. Will you catch me up?" When there was no answer, Lois frowned. "Dana, are you there? Dana?" Looking at the phone, she sighed. "Of course the battery is dead. It's that kind of day and I was due for some sort of cliché to put another kink into things." Checking her mirror out of habit, despite there being no other cars on the road, she thought she again caught the sight of headlights but it was a fleeting look again, so she dismissed it once more. She was just being paranoid, though considering the afternoon and evening she'd had she thought that she was allowed at least a little paranoia, if not a lot of it. Getting her house burned down and having to fight her way out of her neighborhood would do that to a person. Her eyes drifted to her mirror again, and she was surprised by what she saw. Those _were_ headlights. Squinting, she kept her eyes on the mirror for a second while on a straight stretch of road, not really worried about hitting another car at the moment. Those were the headlights of a large car moving very quickly and nearly upon her. Shit.

Pressing down on the gas, she asked all she could out of the BMW she was currently occupying, but as she was accelerating one of the black SUV's she had been avoiding pulled up next to her on the left. The acceleration the car was capable of seemed to finally kick in and she started pulling ahead of the SUV until it did what she thought was the only predictable thing and turned into her, trying to run her off the road.

The impact of the other car hitting hers jolted her and she changed gears, getting a little more punch into the acceleration she needed, but failed to avoid a second hit, which very nearly put her into the wall on her right. She had to fight the wheel for a second to get going straight again, but kept her foot on the gas. Another hit like that, especially now that they had topped 100 miles per hour, would be the end of her.

The SUV swung back out wide, apparently wanting to get a bigger start when it came for her again. How did it even know it was her, anyway? Granted, it's not like they had a lot of cars to choose from, but either they had put some sort of tracking device on her or somebody had seen her steal the car. Either way, this sucked and she was sick of it. Waiting for them to turn into her, Lois kept one eye on the SUV and the other on the road. What were they waiting for? Running her into the wall was running her into the wall no matter where they did it, especially now they were both going over 100 miles per hour. Another few seconds passed, and then the road sounded different underneath the wheels. They had waited for a bridge.

As she realized what was happening, they raced a little ahead and turned towards her. Prepared for it this time, she'd been riding the clutch and waited until the last second before she slammed her foot on the brake, throwing her body forward against the seatbelt and knocking the air out of her as the wheels screeched loudly and the car came to a skidding halt. Not far ahead there was a sound of metal on metal, a tearing and screeching that was painful to the ears. When she could finally inhale again she gulped air greedily, taking deep breath after deep breath. Grabbing the gun, she opened the door and stepped out of the car, not knowing if anybody was still conscious in the SUV. What she found was a gaping hole in the guard rail and no sign of the car that had been chasing her. Walking slowly up to the edge, she looked down and found no sign of her pursuers. With little hesitation she threw the gun off the bridge, no longer feeling like she had much need for it.

She never liked to see people die, but in this instance she was having a hard time mustering up much sympathy.

Running a hand back through her hair as the wind kicked up and blew it into her face, Lois stared out into the darkness for a minute, crossing her arms across her chest as she contemplated her day. Her husband abroad helping those that needed him, her children out with her cousin and then insanity ensued. That was hardly abnormal. Her house and all associated personal possessions up in flames. Having to fight off numerous attackers and being in a high speed car chase. Yeah, she was sick of this. "Superman, I know you're probably busy but I could really use a shoulder to lean on right about now!" she called out loudly into the night sky, only doing so because the road was deserted. If she knew one thing about Clark Kent, and she liked to think she knew at least two or three things, it was that he always came running when she admitted she needed a shoulder to lean on. She had never gone so far as to say a shoulder to cry on, but he had certainly provided that for her over the years. It was probably the sheer force of his shock that she'd admit she couldn't deal with something on her own that would always bring him running. Or flying, as the case may be.

She stood there waiting, fighting the wind every time it whipped up and didn't bring Clark with it. "Smallville, if you can hear me, which seems likely, I assume you're doing something very important right now. Don't worry. I'm having a tough day but okay with the fact that you can't join me right now, and just want to wish you good luck." If nothing else, she gained a small amount of comfort by being a source of comfort for him when things were difficult. She just hoped his situation wasn't as bad as hers had become. Allowing herself a moment of sentimentality, she blew a kiss out into the night. "I love you, Clark."

'_God, that was girly,_' Lois thought, turning away from the hole in the bridge's rail and walking back to the car. Pulling the heavily dented and scratched door shut as she got inside, she resumed her travel towards the city, though this time she allowed herself not to feel quite so urgent as she had been when she had acquired the car and subsequently been doing her best to get away from people she didn't like. Now she could drive at a leisurely pace... well no, not leisurely, as she still had no idea what the hell was going on in the city, but at least less frantic.

Lois didn't think that the travel would have been as boring as it was if she'd had some music. She appreciated the fact that there hadn't been a car alarm, but the owner could have been a little more trusting of people. After getting all the use out of it she could, she would dump the car somewhere, the police would find it and inform the owner and the insurance would cover the damage. She would d go so far as to label this situation exactly what having car insurance was for: other people escaping danger by using your car. Of course, most people didn't have a Beamer to get stolen, but if you park a BMW on the street you are asking for trouble.

Getting lost in her thoughts helped the time pass, and within a few minutes she had a clear view of the city, glowing in what to the untrained eye would appear the usual manner. It seemed somehow dulled, like it was missing lights. Whatever comfort she'd quietly hoped to gain by making it to the city, maybe even hoped without realizing it, seemed just as dulled. Passing a few exits until she came to the one she wanted, Lois turned the car off the highway and slowed as she came to a city street. Turning right towards downtown, and more specifically the _Daily Planet_ building where she thought she might find some answers, she had to quickly stop her car as she found a blockade of military personnel in her way. Two large spotlights were quickly focused on the car as she stopped.

"Turn off and exit your vehicle with your hands in sight!"

Well, at least that was something she was familiar with. She had been around the blockade of a city street a time or two over the years, though the fact that there was one in Metropolis was the exact opposite of what she'd been hoping to find. Then again, considering she had been told there was a curfew, she probably shouldn't have expected much else. Opening the door, she stuck her hands out first, and had to pivot her body to get out while her arms were held out like they were. Keeping her hands held out wide, she had to close one eye as a spotlight was kept on her, making it difficult to see.

"State your name and intentions!"

"My name is Lois Lane Kent," she called out, "and if you take a look at the car you'll see that I haven't had an easy time getting here."

"Do you have identification?"

"I don't, no. If you'll let me approach, I'd like to explain my situation."

There was silence for a second before she got an answer. "Approach slowly, and keep your hands exactly where they are." Taking long, slow strides, it didn't take her very long to cover the thirty or forty feet between her and the blockade. She kept her hands wide and visible as two soldiers trained automatic weapons on her as a third patted her down to make sure she had no weapons.

"She's clean, sir," the soldier that had done the pat down said. With that, the weapons were lowered, though not surprisingly only about halfway.

"What are you doing out driving without a license, ma'am? And why were you trying to get into the city after curfew, when you should be indoors?"

"My home no longer exists. It was burned down earlier today by some people that I'm assuming don't like me very much." Lois went on to recount her day, focusing more on some parts than others, showing them the large, telling dents in the side of the car to accentuate the part about the car chase. "Since you still don't know if I am who I say I am, I suggest trying the website for the _Daily Planet_. They have my picture on there for when my articles are posted. The picture is from six years and two children ago, but I don't think my face has changed all that much, and my hair is shorter now but the same color."

Ten minutes later, after a picture was printed out and held up next to her to make sure it was accurate, Lois finally found the men around her relaxing, at least so much as one could expect from soldiers intent on keeping people out of the city. "My name's Lieutenant Greene, ma'am, Sean Greene. I'm a big fan of yours and Mr. Kent's articles."

"Oh, well, ok." Lois smiled a little, somewhat befuddled by the compliment. It seemed entirely out of place considering her day. "Nice to meet you, Lieutenant. As much as I hate to say this, I'm a little out of the loop. What happened in the city today to necessitate a curfew and road blocks?"

"Unbelievable as it is, I guess you wouldn't have heard anything. Twelve bombs detonated in the city late this afternoon, eleven at strategic targets meant to cripple infrastructure and incite maximum panic. Casualties number in the hundreds so far, but it's only been about a few hours since the first detonation and there are numerous places left to search." A few hours? That put the initial detonation around the same time her house was attacked. "We got called in from the base to handle matters such as this and help keep order. We've been trained for situations like these, but we never thought we'd be using the techniques here in the States, let alone Metropolis."

Oh God, were Jacob and Cassidy all right? She could have imagined a lot of things having happened to the city, but not that. Had she accidentally sent her kids into the line of fire? Pushing the 'what ifs' of the situation out of her head, she instead focused on what she could find out. "Understandable," Lois said. She figured the worst thing a soldier might ever have to do is fight on home soil. "You said eleven bombs were at strategic targets? What about the twelfth?"

"The twelfth is something of an enigma. It's not high in traffic or even outside pedestrian traffic. It was just an ice cream parlor, and not a particularly popular one. A suicide bomber, I've been told, that ordered everybody but a woman and her two children out. The people that escaped ran and never looked back, but they all describe the guy as possibly targeting the woman specifically, going inside not a minute after she and the children entered."

"That... doesn't make any sense," she said more to herself than anybody else. "I guess you can never predict these things, but that's definitely strange." Shaking her head, she went into information gathering mode. "What targets were hit?" The Lieutenant listed the places hit, and it was as he had said. Infrastructure and panic. The only thing that stood out was the ice cream parlor. Why there? "Lieutenant, do you have a list of... hold on a second." Something clicked in her mind, and she blurted out the thought that popped into her head. "Where the hell is Superman?"

"Nobody knows, Mrs. Kent. People have been calling for him since the first bomb went off but we haven't seen hide nor hair. Just when the city could use him the most, too."

"He'll have his reasons, Lieutenant Greene." The bravado she put on was only skin deep. Why wasn't he there, in Metropolis, helping people and trying to figure out who had done this? He wouldn't still be in India, not while this was happening. He would have done a patch job that would hold for a while and raced back as quickly as he could. "We can figure out what his reason is later. Do you have a list of casualties at hand?"

"No, Mrs. Kent, but I can see if I can at least get a partial one for you. I'll need a good reason, though."

"Tell them it's for Sam Lane's daughter."

"As in _General_ Sam Lane?"

"That's the one," she said. "This will just be my way of letting him know that I'm okay."

* * *

><p>Yawning, Lois covered her mouth for the third time in about twenty minutes as the accrued fatigue of the day caught up with her. She wasn't running on adrenaline anymore, and after all the physical exertion of fighting people and the emotional toll of having been attacked and on the run, she was about ready to fall over and sleep for a week. Unfortunately, she didn't have any time for the luxury of sleep. "Mrs. Kent." Looking off to where the voice came from, she saw that Lieutenant Greene was walking over to her carrying some papers, apparently having finally gotten the list she had asked him for. He handed it over to her when he got there. "Your father sends his best, and wanted me to tell you not to do anything stupid."<p>

"Fat chance of that happening, tired as I am," she said around another yawn. "There anywhere around here that I can grab a room for the night? I'm not as familiar with the immediate area as I am other parts of the city."

"There's a hotel a klik south. Pretty nice looking place."

"Perfect. Now if I can get them to give me a room for the night with no credit card I'll be all set. Thanks for all your help, Lieutenant Greene. I'll go ahead and walk there so as not to pull any of your men from their posts."

"What about your car?"

She shrugged and smiled. "I just borrowed it. I suggest running the VIN and contacting the owner. Oh, and Lieutenant? You guys never saw me tonight. You found the car abandoned on a side street nearby. That too much of a favor to ask?"

He smiled at her and started barking orders, leaving Lois to start on her short walk to the hotel. How she was going to get them to rent her a room, she had no idea, but she would just have to find a way. Not like she had been doing anything else all day. Checking the first page of the list, she combed it for any name that might strike a chord, might tell her that there was a reason to all this beyond just wanting to bomb the hell out of the city. It was the ice cream parlor that made her think of it. There had to be more to it than just a suicide bomber not wanting to kill people. There had to be something there he wanted to destroy or somebody there he wanted to kill. Finding no name on the first page that made her think '_Well somebody would want to kill that person,_' she found that she'd traversed most of the way to the hotel without having realized it. It was a _really _good thing that there were no cars on the road or she'd have been run over four or five times.

Walking into the hotel, Lois fell back on the old cliché of controlled chaos based on what she heard. Based on what she saw, it wasn't quite so bad as that, though she could sympathize with the people that were trying to soothe crying children. A few sets of eyes followed her from the waiting area as she walked in, belonging to people that didn't look as beat up as she felt but did look dejected. There were three people working the hotel desk, which appeared to be the same as the number of computers they had there, each with about four people in line. There were also people in a dining room, off to her left, probably with more family members of those in line.

Running a hand over her face to wipe off some of the residual grime and dried blood, she found a chair in the waiting area and sat down, closing her eyes for a second. How could all of this have happened without bringing Clark flying as fast as possible? That made about as much sense as... as things that didn't make any sense. The day had really taken its toll on her if her thinking had fallen to that point. Clearly something was wrong and was keeping Clark out of Metropolis. He wouldn't have abandoned Metropolis to keep working in India; he'd have put a patch on the trouble there, maybe contacted J'onn or Diana about taking his place in the rescue effort there, done _something_ to get back home. Something had happened and Lois had an empty feeling in her stomach that it was nothing she would ever want to hear about. Unfortunately, she couldn't do anything about helping Clark, or at least finding out about what was going on, until she had an idea about who had attacked the city. If the attack and his no-show weren't connected she would eat what remained of her house.

No, as much as she wanted to go searching for her husband, there were bigger things at stake. The whole city was at stake, and without Clark around to do the work she was going to have to take up the mantle. Now if only she were super strong and could fly that task would be a whole lot less difficult, but she was just going to have to settle for her powers of investigation and the written word. The latter probably came after she turned people in and got the exclusive with whomever was in charge right now.

"Ma'am?"

Opening her eyes and seeing a woman standing in front of her, she closed them again and rubbed at the corners. "Sorry, been a long day." Getting up, she pulled her hand away from her face. "I see you guys are stuffed tonight."

The woman shrugged. "You should have seen the lobby right after the curfew went into effect. Never seen so many people in here at once. People have been coming in from the affected areas, either because they were unable to get home or because we're in an area that wasn't hit. We've gotten everybody but you taken care of. Fortunately we've been in something of a slow patch recently or else we wouldn't have had many rooms available."

"Were all the families taken care of?"

"Like I said, we were lucky. I suspect we might be even more swamped tomorrow night if they do more evacuations in the residential buildings, and the interviews on the news make it sound like they will. That's tomorrow, though. We still have two available for you to choose from. One is a single king sized bed with a couch in the room, the other a single queen. Don't worry about price; corporate authorized free rooms for the next five nights."

"I'll take the single queen, just in case another family comes in, and I would like the room for the full five nights."

"Ok, then you'll be in room 408," the woman said as she handed her a key. "May I have your name for the records?"

"Dana Davidson." She would have had to have been an imbecile of monumental proportions to give out her own name, so she gave out the name of the secretary from the office she had spoken to earlier. If anybody figured out it was her from that little fact then they deserved to find her.

Smiling, Lois thanked her and walked away, heading to the elevator. Not having to wait long for it to come down, she stepped inside and pressed the button for the fourth floor, and the quick ride up got her to her room in no time. Walking inside, she flopped down on the bed after tossing the papers on the desk, having to fight against sleep as soon as she was settled. Pulling the phone from her pocket, she dumped it on the night stand and grabbed the receiver of the room phone. She stretched out a second before dialing the farm, wanting to see what Martha might know.

"Hello?"

"Martha, hi! It's Lois."

"Oh thank goodness! Honey, where have you been? I've been trying to reach you all night! Jacob and Cassidy are here!"

Sitting up, Lois was suddenly as awake as she'd been in an hour. Her children were safe. Something good had finally happened on this disaster of a day. "I'm glad Chloe was smart enough to take them to you. Did she tell you anything about what happened?"

"Chloe's not here, Lois. They just showed up late this afternoon. Jacob had run here carrying a scared Cassidy. The poor boy was so exhausted that he collapsed, and I couldn't get any information from Cassidy. When he woke up I asked him what happened and he said that Chloe had told him to run to the farm after a man with a gun had run into the ice cream parlor they were in."

Lois dropped the phone and jumped off the bed, running to the desk and grabbing the list of the dead. Running through the list of last names starting with S, she hoped and prayed as hard as she ever had that nothing bad had happened to her cousin, and for a second she thought she might have caught a break. Then she got to the last name on the list. _Sullivan, Chloe_.

"No... no, no... she can't, she can't be..." Trailing off, Lois stumbled over to the bed, grabbing the phone and sitting down heavily. "Ma-Martha, they... oh God, she's dead."

"Lois, please don't say that."

"They killed her... they killed Chloe." She said it so softly she could barely hear herself. "I-I got a list of the dead through the military, and... and she's the last name on the list." After the day she'd had, she dropped the phone and was overwhelmed as grief started washing over her, sobs escaping as she lost control of the emotions she'd pushed aside for hours.

Her house was gone, her husband missing and cousin dead. The home she had never thought she would have was gone, and Chloe... she'd barely even had the chance to start her life again before it was taken away from her. She'd never gotten any of the happiness she deserved, instead losing her life in a senseless attack. "Damn it!" she cried out through the tears. How could all of this have happened? How could they have not seen some sign of it coming?

The exhaustion of the day finally catching up to her, heavy eyelids closed against Lois's will. They didn't stop the tears.


	5. Chapter 5

- Chapter 5

"Rescue teams worked through the night at the six sites where the fire department had put out the fires or hadn't been needed, recovering both the injured and deceased. Fires are still burning at the other six bombing sites, keeping any full scale rescue efforts from getting underway. Reported casualty numbers are at least three hundred killed and another seven hundred injured, most of those in the residential attacks. Federal help is already being arranged, with the Army Corps of Engineers sending an advance team to aid city engineers in determining building viability at all blast sites.

"Given the magnitude of the situation, many are questioning where Superman is in Metropolis' most dire hour. To our knowledge all attempts at communication with the Man of Steel have failed, with no reported sightings of him since he helped a man being mugged by a group of youths early yesterday afternoon, approximately four hours before the first bomb went off. Interim Police Chief Sawyer has asked citizens to keep their distance from the bombing sites and to report missing persons to the hotline number we have on the bottom of the screen. We now go to our reporter in the field, John Walsh, for an on site report from police headquarters, site of one of the blasts."

Pulling her hands back and forth through her hair a few times, Chloe finally let them come to rest underneath her chin, her elbows resting on her knees. It took more than a little effort to ignore the throbbing in her hip.

"Derek, police headquarters was the site of one of the largest explosions in the city yesterday. We're as close as they'll allow us to be, and as you can see the damage is extensive, with the front of the building appearing to have been demolished. Interim Chief Sawyer has rallied officers and established a temporary station at an undisclosed location, issuing orders from there to officers around the city. So far the strategy has worked well, with the police force communicating and working as well as could be hoped in the face of this tragedy."

Having had enough news on what was going on in the city for the moment, Chloe turned off the television and yawned widely, her body aching all over from getting the hell beat out of her by the explosion and subsequent collision with the side of a car. Sleeping had been nice, but waking up to feel like she'd had her ass kicked, while nothing new, had never been her idea of a good morning. As she contemplated the bombings and what was going on in the city, a saying she'd learned during her travels popped to the front of her mind. _Victorious warriors win first then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win. _Considering the bombings in that context didn't help much; the bombers were clearly victorious, at least so far. If there was more to come, with the state of the city it seemed a fair guess they'd be victorious then, too. What a happy thought that was.

* * *

><p>Opening her eyes slowly, Lois closed them again. Turning away from the morning sun, she ignored her extremely sore body and tried to will herself back to sleep. She knew that if she went back to sleep now she would probably sleep for another four or five hours and awaken to the same world. The world today was not the world she had woken up to the day before, and that was not something she found comforting. Chloe was dead. Clark was missing. Metropolis was on lockdown after being hit by a dozen bombs that probably killed a few hundred people that were in the wrong place at the wrong time. And it was most likely all because Lex couldn't stand losing. It had to be him. Unless there was somebody else out there harboring a murderous grudge against Chloe, her house and Superman she couldn't think of, Lex was the one.<p>

Opening her eyes again, she stared at the empty side of the bed. Normally the only time she woke up alone was when Clark was off helping people. Technically she never _knew_ that Clark was coming home, but she always had a feeling he would be back. Maybe it was just that she never woke up knowing that something was wrong, save a few rare occasions over the years. At least then she had known why he was missing, or at least where he was. The overwhelming feeling of having no idea where he was or why he hadn't come back to Metropolis was liable to drive her to do something rash, which was hardly the best idea when the safety net she would never admit needing was missing.

She needed something to occupy her mind. There wasn't anything that was going to make her forget - far from it - but if she could find something that would at least distract her for a few minutes, maybe it would break up the grief and confusion into manageable portions rather than the current crushing landslide. She could at least try and accomplish something. Plus, she had a feeling that a landslide of crushing sadness wasn't going to work for her. Reaching over for the phone, she dialed a number that she had become quite familiar with over the past couple years. It wasn't long before there was an answer.

"Hello?"

"Reggie, it's Lois."

"I was beginning to think that you'd been killed in one of the explosions, Lane. I heard 'em go off and began checking my phone on the hour to see if I'd missed you."

"It was a rough day. I didn't even hear about the explosions until last night right before I collapsed from exhaustion. But that's enough about me. What have you heard?"

"Mostly a ringing in my ears, but there's a name, too. Nothin' in all this points to any of the usual players, so it's a new guy in town, as far as I know, maybe looking to make waves. Gonna go out on a limb and call this wavy. Name is Mr. Stanton."

"That's it?"

"I know. Who'd have thought anybody would try to be a one named ominous figure anymore? The name has been going around for a while now. Guys popped up one day outta nowhere looking for trustworthy people that had lost friends and family. Not to disease or whatever, but people that were knifed or shot. Had something they were planning, and I don't know if this is that, but none of the regulars seem to be boasting about it, and you know better than most how they love to boast"

"Trustworthy people that had lost those close to them to violence," Lois muttered, "is not something you hear about everyday." Grabbing a pen off the desk, Lois wrote the name down on the back of her hand.

"Exactly. S'why it stuck out in my mind, especially considering somebody barked up my tree about joining his team. I was flattered they thought I was trustworthy, but had to turn 'em down. I like bein' an independent contractor."

"It does seem to work for you," Lois mumbled, trying to figure out why the name Stanton tickled the back of her mind. "Look, I have to ask: is there anything you've heard, even the quietest whisper in the worst dive in town, that would point to Lex Luthor being involved?"

"Luthor? I never heard a peep about his activities even when he wasn't in jail. Can't see him blowing up half the city. Always figured him a more subtle guy."

"Yeah, you'd think. One last question: the bomb at the ice cream parlor was a suicide bomb. Any way you can get me that guy's name?"

"Gimme a couple hours. I'll have a name, his mother's maiden name and full background check. You still going to be at this number?"

"Yeah. It's a hotel, so if the desk answers ask for room 408. Dana Davidson."

"Will do."

Hearing a click at the other end, Lois put the phone back from where she'd picked it up. Laying on her back, she stared up at the ceiling for a few minutes. Not as good a distraction as talking to Reggie. Sitting up, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and started stripping off her clothes. Maybe the hot water of a shower would keep her mind occupied for a while. It was better than doing nothing.

* * *

><p>Pacing through the living room, Chloe waited impatiently as the ringing persisted. Finally there was an answer.<p>

"Sullivan, you've called me twelve times in an hour! What's the emergency?"

"I still can't get in touch with Lois or Clark, Perry! Have you had any luck?"

"No, but who knows if they're trying because my cell and work are tied up with all your calls! Plus, I can't answer you in the middle of everything; people are going to figure out that you aren't dead pretty damn quickly if I keep answering calls and yelling out my frustration at somebody with the name of Sullivan, because I don't know any others!"

"Well then you shouldn't have had me reported dead, Perry!" Chloe almost threw the phone, having to hold herself back for a moment before continuing the conversation. "I understand why you did it, but I'm going to go stir crazy in this house. I need to go out an do something, but if I go out and somebody just happens to recognize me this plan will have accomplished nothing."

The line was quiet for a moment, and Chloe was about to ask if he was still there when he spoke. "I'm going to send over somebody that owes me a favor and more importantly has no idea who you are. She'll be there in an hour or two, hopefully with the supplies to get you out and about. How's that?"

"Why can't you come yourself, Perry? I don't want more people to know than necessary."

"Because with Lane and Kent God knows where, not to mention Jimmy and all the other people that aren't here, we're a little short staffed, so I'm sending myself out on assignment. Plus, I have a few old contacts here and there that I've talked to, a couple of which are only willing to talk face to face, and we need every scrap we can get."

"But who's going to run the paper?"

"Ron Troupe is here and is going to do his job by managing things while I'm out. It's not the first time I haven't been here, Chloe, and you know that. You just wait there until somebody knocks on the door."

"Fine," Chloe sighed. "If it gets me doing something towards solving what happened yesterday, then it'll have to do."

* * *

><p>An hour and a half after the shower had started, Lois walked out, tying the hotel provided robe shut before working on drying her hair. She always liked to take advantage of what seemed to be an endless amount of hot water in hotels, which set her up for taking marathon showers that put her old marathon showers to shame. She also rarely had a chance to take a shower longer than ten minutes anymore; at some point family time had replaced shower time, not that she was complaining. Family time was her favorite time, bar none. They were the best moments in her day, despite sometimes being stressful. And now her days would no longer include Chloe.<p>

Stupid traitorous brain reminding her of the truth.

Jumping when the phone rang and disturbed her thoughts, she reached for it. "Hello?"

"I have a name, a mother's maiden name and full background. Even on a day like this I'm the best there is."

Tossing her towel on the bed to free up a hand, she started searching through the desk drawers until she found a pad of paper, then sat down and switched the phone to her other hand before getting the pen. "You are an absolute wonder, Reggie," Lois said, stroking his ego so they could get on with the information exchange. "What have you got?"

"Michael Piersol, thirty-one."

"Are you sure?"

"You know my information is always good, Lane."

"So this Michael Piersol walks into the ice cream parlor. Witness reports say that he told everybody but a woman with two children to get out. He went in about thirty seconds after they did, let everybody else out and then not long after the place exploded."

"Let me add this: the man had talked to Stanton's people at least once in the past three weeks. I haven't been able to get my hands on records for the day of the bombing but who knows, maybe this had been in the pipeline for awhile and they just gave him a when and a where."

"But it doesn't add up... why would a group obviously attempting to target infrastructure and inflict high casualties choose that location, not to mention a bomber that lets people go? How does that make any kind of sense? He had to have been targeting the woman."

"You think that bomb was meant to kill one woman? Seems like a lot of effort when a simple bullet would have done the trick. Who was she?"

Sucking in a deep breath, Lois exhaled slowly. "Her name was Chloe... Sullivan..." Suddenly it clicked in her mind. Stanton. Blake Stanton, Chloe's old boss and occasional sex buddy. _That's_ what had been tickling the back of her mind ever since she'd heard the name Mr. Stanton. She had no inkling that he was the Mr. Stanton that Reggie had told her about, but at least that wouldn't be bugging her anymore.

"Lane? You still there?"

Snapping out of her daze, Lois went back to what she was doing. "Yeah, sorry. I just remembered something I couldn't quite figure out earlier."

"Congrats. Any chance you would know why this Mr. Stanton character would be targeting this Chloe Sullivan woman?"

"That's kind of why I thought this whole thing might be Lex. The man holds a grudge and pays with high amounts of interest. Plus, the fact that I was attacked and my house burned down also led me to thinking it was him."

"That is an interestin' side note, and considering you put Lex away it would add up. But with you 'n your husband being the big crime solvers outside of the police in the city, it does make sense that Mr. Stanton would want to make a preemptive strike against you, maybe take you outta the picture before you can tell people it was him that did this. Guy would end up having to face trial outside the state if the government wanted it to be fair."

"Seems like a lot of work for a couple reporters."

"Two reporters that put away Lex Luthor, like you said, and have ruined the plans of many. You're world-renowned. It's not inconceivable."

"I guess you're right. Look, I'm going to go. Keep an ear to the ground and call me here or at the _Planet_ if you hear anything."

"Always do, Lane."

* * *

><p>Staring at the ceiling, Chloe closed her eyes and cleared her mind, attempting to go through a mental exercise. She was everything but successful. With Perry sending somebody over with supplies, whatever that meant, she was feeling antsy. She wanted to be out there finding who had tried to kill her. How was it that in three months she had lost all of her patience? She had gone for days without doing anything but meditating during her travels, but right now she couldn't go five minutes without wanting to do something.<p>

She had forgotten how much adrenaline was pumped into her system when people were actively trying to kill her.

At a knock on the door, Chloe got up off the couch. She stretched for a second before walking to the door, and with a glimpse out the peephole to see a woman holding some plastic bags, she opened the door. "Perry sent me with explicit instructions," the woman said, pushing past Chloe into the safe house, dropping the bags onto the couch, "and I intend to follow them so we can be square. Don't tell me your name or anything about yourself. In fact, don't even speak; I don't want to hear the tone of your voice." The woman shoved her hands in her pockets, walking back towards the door. "I never saw you. If anybody asks why I came here today it was because Perry loaned the place to somebody displaced by the bombs, a woman with dark hair and glasses, and he needed somebody to drop off some food for her. Use what's in the bags to make yourself that dark haired woman with glasses. Do you understand?" Chloe nodded. "Good. I'll let Perry know I was here. He wants you to keep contact to a minimum. Good luck."

And with that, the woman walked out, pulling the door shut loudly behind her as she did so. "Reminds me of Lois when she really gets going on a rampage," Chloe muttered to herself, dumping out the contents of the plastic bags onto the couch. Hair dyes, makeup, a few pairs of glasses, some new clothes... she could work with this.

* * *

><p>Waking from his unconscious state, Clark found himself on a cold, stone surface. Eyes popping open as he pulled air in sharply, he coughed it back out again, racking his worn body. It took a minute for him to finally get his breathing under control, the added pain simply fading into what was now omnipresent. The only light that wasn't from the weak glow of kryptonite came from the open doorway, though it was minimized by the figure standing in it. "How are you feeling, <em>Superman<em>?" There hadn't been any attempt by his captor to hide the disgust when saying his name. Strangely, though, he felt a little better than he had. The effects of the kryptonite seemed almost less than they had been before.

"Had better days," Clark ground out, "but I've had worse."

"I'm sure. I think you're feeling a little better than you were on the plane ride over. You're not sitting so close to it now. Don't get me wrong; we've got plenty of it in the walls to keep you from doing anything but sitting in the middle of this room, quiet as a mouse. Four walls and the floor are lined with lead, but if you want to use that x-ray vision, feel free to look up. See what's happened to Metropolis. Watch the city pick itself up without you. Now, you sit quietly and don't make any noise, we'll release you, simple as that. Try anything, we'll know and come in with so many different ways to use kryptonite on you that you won't remember your name by the time we finish. Oh, and if you're thinking of blasting a hole in the wall with your heat vision, the temperature gauges around the room will tell us before you get a chance. The temperature of the room is constant so if you decide to make something hot or cold, we'll know. Do we have an understanding?"

Sitting up, Clark looked the man square in the eye. "I hope you have a plan for what happens after you release me, because I do. I will find every person involved and see him or her put behind bars."

"Yeah, good luck with that." The man stepped out of the doorway and closed the door as he did so.

Darkness having enveloped him, Clark laid down again so his body could rest. There was enough distance between him and the walls that the pain from the kryptonite was minimal, but the effects were still felt. Now he had time to think. Now he could think instead of being able to do nothing but try to stop being aware of how much pain he was in. Hardly a victory, but he'd take what he could get.


	6. Chapter 6

- Chapter 6

Looking in the mirror, Chloe smiled when she saw her hair. What had recently been blonde and messy was now a very dark shade of brown and controlled. She had decided to actually brush her hair instead of just letting it go wild, something she had only done a few times since returning to Metropolis. Usually she just ran a comb through it a couple times to work out any tangles and then forgot about it. Her first attempt at a style, having it slicked back, had ended up looking a little bit like the way Clark wore his hair as Superman, a rogue bit of hair having fallen down in the front. After having found that too strange to stick with, she had decided to just part it to one side, as it was now. The way she had brushed it reminded her vaguely of the hair of one of her old boyfriends, but that was better than reminding her of Superman.

Walking back out into the bedroom she grabbed a black t-shirt that had been brought for her, pulling it on and taking a second to straighten it on her shoulders. That was followed by jeans, which fit surprisingly well. Perry's description of her to the woman that he had sent must have been pretty accurate, or he was just a lucky guesser. Grabbing the makeup, she went back into the bathroom and applied it generously, much differently than usual when she was sparing in its application, if she used anything besides some lip gloss. This time it helped to mask that the right side of her face was a massive yellow and purple bruise.

With the makeup her look was even more changed than it had been with her dyed hair. Walking back out into the living room, she grabbed the pairs of glasses, walking back into the bathroom so she could see how they looked on her in the mirror. Trying them on, the last pair looked best, an older style of thick plastic that looked like the ones Lois had worn for awhile before getting her eyes lasered. The lenses were either very weak or simple pieces of plastic because they hardly changed her vision at all. Either way, the image that looked back at her was not Chloe Sullivan, or at least not a Chloe Sullivan anybody had seen before. If anybody that knew her looked they probably wouldn't recognize her, not under heavy makeup, dark hair and glasses.

Grabbing her phone and the key to the safe house then jamming each in a pocket, she slipped on her shoes and walked out of the safe house. It was time to get some answers.

* * *

><p>"Mr. <em>Who<em>?" Chloe asked as she leaned forward, making sure she had heard correctly.

"Mr. Stanton. That's the name I've heard, and I confirmed it from a couple guys that never steer me wrong. It's not a name that's supposed to be out there, but it is because people talk. He was looking for good people that had lost those close to 'em to violence. No reason why them specifically, but that's what I heard. Oh, and his guys were flashing major cash, too. Retire to a sparsely inhabited island kinda money."

Sitting back again, she shook her head. Some guy named Stanton could have a link to all the violence. It wasn't Blake unless he had undergone some sort of personality change; he was a good person, if not a dumbass. She had looked him up not long after getting back to Metropolis and had found that he was working at another startup down in Austin, having gotten out from under the thumb of Lex when Lois and Clark had gotten him arrested. Considering he had chosen to be there she wasn't sure that he hadn't deserved a life in Lex's pocket, but for enough money even an asshole could get into something stupid he didn't deserve. She was fairly certain Lex had thrown enough money at him to change his pupils to cartoon dollar signs.

But it wasn't lost on her that a guy with the last name of Stanton had been the last straw and sent her into spiral down to attempted murder, and now somebody that at least gave people the name Stanton could be connected to be the violence in the city. It really wasn't significant to anybody but her, she figured, but she counted pretty highly in her own little world. This failed to explain what exactly had happened to her with the suicide bomber insisting she and the kids be the ones to stay unless Lex was behind the attacks. Despite having lived a life that had convinced her bad things happened to her as a karmic balance for good things happening to others, usually the bad things that happened to her involved crazy people with powers. "I know this is going to sound like it's coming out of nowhere, but you have connections so let me ask you this: do you think Lex Luthor could be involved in any way?"

The man across from her, an old source in use and age that either hadn't recognized her, hadn't remembered her or just wanted to talk because he had yet to call her by name, had been more than willing to tell what he had heard. By the look on his face, he obviously hadn't heard a word about Lex being involved. "Lex Luthor? You're right, that is out of nowhere. Guy's cut off from his money and sitting in jail, so I doubt he had a whole lot to do with what happened yesterday. Why him?"

"Old habit," Chloe said, shrugging. "Generally when bad things have happened to the city there's been some connection to Lex, and no matter how small the link he usually had some influence."

"Well, you know the facts as I do now." As he stopped, he squinted his eyes. "You look familiar and knew how to get me talking. Have we met before?"

Knew how to get him talking? He had started before she sat down! "Have we met? No, don't think so. I got your name from a friend of mine that used to work in the newspaper business, told me you were the man to see. Speaking of which," Chloe said as she stood up, "I have other people and places to see. I know you don't take money for the info, but I'm paying for your lunch."

Dropping some of what remained of her money on the table, she smiled at him one last time before walking off. If this whole playing dead thing was going to work she wasn't going to be able to spend much time with people that might recognize her, even with her look changed. Years apart and old age had worked in her favor that time, but she couldn't count on luck. Relying on luck would get her killed, quickly, and probably a few times over as much as she seemed to die. Unfortunately, to have any chance of success in her endeavor to uncover who did this, which she would have gladly left to the police had somebody not tried to blow her up personally, she needed funds. Surviving without money she could do; Bruce had made sure of that as much as he had ensured she would have ample knowledge of various martial arts. This was not a situation of survival, though. Well, that wasn't true, but this was survival of a different sort. Stealing food and finding a warm place to sleep wasn't going to do shit against guys with firepower the likes of which they had unleashed. It was time to break out the big guns, or at least the big money. Pulling the phone out of her pocket, she dialed a number she'had become quite familiar with over the past few years.

"Wayne Manor."

"Alfred, hi!" Chloe exclaimed happily, reveling in the sound of his voice. The man had been a confidante and friend when she had needed both desperately. "It's Chloe."

"Miss Sullivan, I'm very pleased to hear from you. With all that's going on in Metropolis Master Bruce and I had been worried about your well being, despite his insistence that you were probably nowhere near any of the explosions."

"I could only wish I'd been so lucky, Alfred. One of them nearly killed me."

"Were you badly injured?"

"Cuts, scrapes and a limp from a very sore hip. I used to feel worse after an intense training session with Bruce. I could have used one of those baths I used to take after a day of getting the tar beat out of me, but I don't think that's a luxury I'll be afforded anytime soon." Frowning at herself as she walked, she fought the urge to sigh. "Enough of my moaning and groaning. This is, unfortunately, a business call rather than me wanting to catch up. It's broad daylight, so is it safe to assume Bruce is home?"

"A good assumption, Miss Sullivan. Everything aside, it is good to know you're all right. Give me a moment and I'll put him on."

"Thanks, Alfred." Looking around as she waited for the silence on the phone to die, Chloe kept walking along the mostly empty sidewalk, not headed anywhere specific for the moment. She was hardly surprised that few people were out. There would be a group of people here and there and a person walking alone every now and again, but mostly it was just empty sidewalk where usually there would be, if not hordes, a lot of people on a Monday. That didn't even take into account the almost complete absence of cars. What had been a startling absence the day before was even more stark today now that she wasn't nearly being blown up. God, she'd nearly been _blown up_. Maybe the shock of the ordeal was wearing off, or maybe she was just realizing what that meant but she had nearly become a much more exploded version of herself. That was just about the last thing in the world that she wanted, right up there with drowning and nuclear war. In fact, she was going to go ahead and include all forms of her death on that list aside from very old age, and even that wasn't preferred.

"What's going on, Chloe?"

Bruce coming onto the line knocked her out of her thoughts, and Chloe focused on the present again instead of what had almost happened. "Oh, you know, nearly get blown up, get declared dead, roam around the city not looking like myself. I'd call it the usual but this is a little out there, even for me. Didn't enjoy the nearly getting blown up, by the way."

"I'd say you get used to it, but that isn't really true. What do you need?"

"I'm flying under the radar but I'm not going to be able to do that successfully for very long the way things stand. I'm staying at a _Daily Planet_ safe house and have food, but not much else. Odd as this is going to sound after twelve large explosions yesterday, but I think one of them was targeting me specifically."

"Why do you say that?"

"The one that nearly got me was the first to go off, and the rest followed with domino precision. All the others were unmanned, but this one was a suicide bomber. I was at an ice cream parlor and all the other bombs were tactical locations. One of these things is not like the others, Bruce, and I don't think my luck is THAT bad."

"It would be a hell of a coincidence, but it's best you don't discount anything yet. I have a few ideas on who could have done this, but what do you think?"

"What do I think?" Shifting the phone from one ear to the other, Chloe ducked into an alley before answering. "My first thought screamed Lex Luthor trying to get me back for trying to kill him, but now I have an actual name that isn't his, which is one of a few reasons I called. First, will you see if you can find anything on a Mr. Stanton? I know it's basically nothing to go on, but I got the name from a reliable source. He said a Mr. Stanton has been recruiting good people that had lost friends and family to violence for a while now, and has big money, too. It could be a wild goose chase, but it could also be a new big spender in Metropolis taking Lex's place."

"I'll run it, see what I can find. What else do you need?"

"Money. Call me paranoid, but I don't trust the situation enough to draw from either of my bank accounts. Hell, I couldn't if I wanted to. One atm card is in my apartment and the other is in pieces with everything else that was I had in the bag I had with me yesterday. Currently I have minimal money at my disposal, so if you could set something up..."

"I have an account with the First Bank of Metropolis you can use. I'll call and let them know you're on the way under an assumed name, but you're going to need to go to the main branch. I'll make sure you're set up with whatever you need to use the money. Use your phone to send me a current picture, too."

"Okay. Is the bank even open?"

"Don't worry about that. Anything else?"

"Yeah," she said, looking up at the sky. "Have you heard from Clark?"

"No, and I had noticed his absence from the beginnings of the recovery efforts."

"I think something's happened to him, Bruce, and I'd bet every dollar currently on my person it's connected to what happened yesterday. Do me a favor and tell everybody to keep an eye out for him, will you?"

"Of course. What does Lois think about him not being there?"

"I have no idea. I haven't been able to get in contact with her since the explosions, which makes getting together with her to brainstorm extremely difficult. I'm not going to have any luck in my current situation, so see what you can do?" Chloe paused a second. "I guess I'm kinda dumping a lot of favors on you, aren't I?"

"It's not a favor, just something for a friend. I'll be in touch."

Stuffing the phone back in her pocket after ending the call and sending a self portrait to Bruce, Chloe bit her lip. "You two are out there somewhere, Lois and Clark. I'd really appreciate it if you found a way to get in touch with me and let me know you're ok." Sighing, she walked back out of the alley and with a quick look around, remembered where the main branch of the First Bank of Metropolis would be and started towards it. At least in her travels she had grown used to walking a lot.

* * *

><p>Walking into the bank, Chloe looked around. Not counting the tellers, there was all of one person inside. It was as quiet as the rest of the city, but it still caught her a little off guard. She couldn't even the last time she had gone into a bank and hadn't had to wait in line fifteen minutes. What she wouldn't give for that to be the case at the moment. Pushing aside her thoughts of wishing to be inconvenienced, Chloe walked up to the only teller. "Hi. I was wondering if I could speak to the manager, president or whomever's in charge?"<p>

"May I tell her what this is in reference to?"

Adjusting her glasses, she smiled. "Just tell her that I'm a friend of Bruce Wayne." The teller blinked and stared for a second before turning and walking away, leaving Chloe standing alone. The music playing over the speakers sounded upbeat, almost as if the bank was playing it simply to try and change the mood. Fat chance of that happening. Leaning against the counter, she closed her eyes and swayed along with it for a moment, letting it at least have a chance to cheer her up a little. No such luck.

"Miss Victoria Vale?"

Looking around for a second, she realized that must be the assumed name Bruce had mentioned. Spinning on her heel, she smiled at the bank manager, a woman that didn't appear to be all that much older than she was, and shook her hand. "Please, call me Vicki."

The manager smiled back. "Vicki, then. I'm Penny Barnes, President of First Bank of Metropolis. I spoke with Mr. Wayne earlier, and he told me what you require. If you would follow me, please."

Doing just that, Chloe was guided back towards the vault, and taken into a private room next to it. The President closed the door after Chloe had walked in, and they both sat down on opposite sides of a table that had only a pen and a small pad of paper on it. "Mr. Wayne asked me to provide you with an account supplied by funds he has in holding here, as well as a means to access that account." She pulled an envelope out of her pocket and slid it across the table. "This is a debit card to your account that can also act as an ATM card. As per the request you've been supplied with the sum of five million dollars, and also some other paperwork that Mr. Wayne had delivered for you."

Chloe had to tense her jaw muscles so that her mouth didn't fall open. As it was, her eyes had gone wide at the amount mentioned and she doubted there would have been anything she could have done to stop that. "Um, thank you for all your help." Taking the envelope off the table, she pulled the debit card out and slid it into a pocket, not bothering to check the other papers for the moment. "Is there anything that I need to sign to make this all official?"

"No, ma'am. Mr. Wayne took care of all the necessary transfer work over the phone."

"Ok then." She pointed at the pen and pad of paper. "You mind if I take those?" She grabbed them and smiled when Mrs. Barnes nodded. "Thanks again."

Standing and stuffing the envelope containing the other papers that had been mentioned in her back pocket, Chloe shook her hand one more time before walking out of the room and the bank, still a little stunned by the fact that Bruce had given her as much money as he had. _Five million dollars! _When she had been thinking about how much money she might need, tops had been fifty thousand for transportation and greasing the occasional palm to get more information out of people. All things considered she was going to be able to buy some really nice transportation a dozen times over. Now what she really need was more information. Remembering the other papers the bank President had given her, she pulled the envelope from her pocket and opened it. Inside was a paper drivers license, a social security card, of all things, and even stranger was that there was a birth certificate. And to top things off, there was a laminated press pass with the picture she had sent to Bruce on it from the Gotham Gazette. All of it was under the name Victoria Vale. Hardly believing what she was seeing, Chloe pulled out her phone and dialed Wayne Manor again.

"Wayne Manor."

"Alfred, it's Chloe again. Put me through to Bruce, please."

"Right away, Miss Sullivan." Trapping the phone between her ear and shoulder, and folded up the birth certificate and put it back in the envelope along with the social security card.

"What's going on, Chloe?"

"What's going on?" Chloe asked incredulously. "First of all, five million dollars? _Really_? And when you told me I was going to be getting the money under an assumed name, I never thought I would actually be getting a whole new identity! How the hell did you do all that in the hour and a half it took me to get to the bank?"

"I did what needed to be done to make sure you could accomplish anything you want to. You now have an identity to use within the system, where you'll be able to access information a lot more easily than you would have before. You said it yourself: Chloe Sullivan has been declared dead. You're Vicki Vale, a woman with a birthday the same week as yours that works as an investigative reporter for the Gotham Gazette."

"Bruce, I _don't_ need to be somebody else."

"Yes, you do. I know that you want to fight this as yourself, and you are. You're still you, but until things have been figured out with who bombed the city and why it seemed like you were being targeted, Victoria Vale is going to have to be your new name."

Chloe fought the urge to grumble. "How did you even come up with the name Vicki Vale, anyway?"

"I saw it in a comic book when I was a kid."

"Perfect. So, officially I'm a reporter for the Gotham Gazette here to cover the bombings?"

"Correct."

"Two questions: what's the name of my editor, and how exactly did I get into town so quickly?"

"Your editor's name is Ryan Payne. I informed him of your hire, using your actual work as a resumé. He loved your writing and was giddy when I told him you were all ready in Metropolis. I think the latter will be up to you to figure out. Use the name, the press access and the money."

Looking over the birth certificate, Chloe sighed. "Thank you, Bruce. For everything. When will I hear from you next?"

"I'll talk to you again when I have information on Mr. Stanton or Clark's location."

With the click of Bruce hanging up effectively ending the conversation, Chloe put the phone back in her pocket. Clipping the press pass to her pocket, she found it to be an odd moment. It had been years since she had last worn a press pass, back when she'd had a lot of things she no longer could claim having. A job in her dream career, a man pretending to love her, a father that hadn't died yet and the assorted hopes and dreams anybody that was happy had.

Oh, and she hadn't tried to kill anybody yet. Small detail, that.

At least she was back in her dream career, even if she had been forced back into it. Apparently somebody up there wanted her back in journalism. Not only did Perry expect any story she stumbled upon but Bruce had gone ahead and officially put her back into the job. "Vicki Vale, Gotham _Gazette_," she said, trying to familiarize herself with her new introduction. It was certainly no 'Chloe Sullivan, _Daily Planet_' but it would have to do. Once Lois found out about this she would probably be thrilled she was back in journalism, even if it was under an assumed name at a newspaper based in a city on the east coast. All that aside, it was time to focus. She had a lot of resources at her disposal now, so there were no excuses for not getting to the bottom of the situation. First thing first: she needed a mode of transportation that made it so she wasn't walking from place to place.

Looking around, she spotted a luxury car dealership at the end of the block that actually appeared to be open. Considering for a moment, she shrugged and smiled to herself as she started walking. Figuring out who had bombed Metropolis was going to be difficult, so she may as well do it in a car she'd never be able to afford otherwise.


	7. Chapter 7

- Chapter 7

She was running out of ways to distract herself.

Her arms crossed over her chest, Lois stared out the window of her hotel room. She couldn't see any of the wreckage from the bombings, but there was plenty of smoke rising through the spaces between buildings to give her a good idea of where she needed to go. The closest looked to be at least fifteen blocks away, which wasn't too bad of a walk. Most of the others looked to be at least twenty or thirty blocks away, based on the places that had been bombed and where the smoke was rising. Those would be a longer walk if the taxi services weren't running. She had been trying to figure out which bombing site it was that was nearest to her, but her brain refused to work at full capacity. It kept drifting to the possibility that she would walk those fifteen blocks and find herself standing at the place Chloe had died.

Exhaling loudly through her nose, Lois tried to mentally prepare herself for that moment when she faced the spot where her cousin had been killed. Objectively, as a reporter, she knew that she needed to go to the site of each bombing to see what she could learn, to see if there was any clue people had overlooked that would lead to the perpetrators. But as Lois Lane Kent, going and facing the spot where her cousin had been killed... swallowing, she looked down at the floor for a second before closing her eyes, fighting tears that threatened to start spilling out again. She couldn't deal with crying right now. There was too much to do, too much daylight left to go out and try to find Chloe's killer. If she let herself cry now the grief wouldn't stop until she was curled up into a ball again, her stomach muscles as sore as if she'd done a few hundred crunches, exhaustion threatening to overtake her. That was happening enough as it was.

She was all but certain that there were going to be days and nights like that in the near future, but she couldn't afford that today, or for the next few days. Once she had time to sort out some facts she would deal with Chloe's death emotionally she could grieve, but for now she needed to keep it on the back burner. What a day the previous one had been that she couldn't allow herself the act of grieving. Walking away from the window, Lois sat down on the side of the bed and picked up the phone, dialing the farm with the speed of familiarity.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Martha. It's Lois."

"Oh, honey, how are you doing?"

"As well as could be expected, I guess," Lois said through a sigh, pulling a hand back through her hair to get it out of her face. "I wanted to apologize for the way our call ended last night. I just... I read her name and I lost it. The rational part of my brain disconnected and I just lost it."

"Lois, you have nothing to apologize for. A loss like that... we all react differently. The shock of losing Chloe and finding out that way, reading her name off a list... as close as you two are... were... I understand."

Lois wiped at the corner of an eye with her thumb, taking a second to collect herself. "Do you mind if I speak to Jacob or Cass?"

"Of course not, Lois. Jacob's right here."

There was a pause, then a new voice came onto the phone. "Mommy?"

"Hi, Jacob," she said, a small smile making its way onto her face just at the sheer relief of hearing his voice and having solid proof he was ok. "I'm so proud of you, buddy. Running with your sister to Smallville like you did... I'm the luckiest mom in the world, having a son like you and a daughter like Cass."

"Are you ok, mommy? You sound sad."

"I'm just tired, buddy. I was scared because until I heard your voice, I wasn't sure you were all right. Talking to you makes me feel a lot better."

"I was scared, too, when the man came into the ice cream store with the gun! Aunt Chloe protected us when he told us to stay, after telling everybody else to leave. She stayed in front of us and asked me if I could carry Cassidy here! I didn't know, but I wanted to be brave like dad when he helps people, so I said yes. Then she put Cassidy in my arms and I ran all the way here! I was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open when I saw Grandma! Is Aunt Chloe ok?"

Rubbing at the corners of her eyes, Lois covered up the mouthpiece to the phone and looked up for a second. "Thank you, Chloe. Thank you for keeping them safe," she whispered, clearing her throat before she uncovered the mouthpiece. She didn't want to lie to him, but she couldn't tell him she died over the phone like this. It wasn't fair. But then, what about life was these days? "I haven't talked to Aunt Chloe yet, buddy, but I'm going to try." She paused, collecting her thoughts for a second. "Jacob, I love you so much. You're the bravest boy in the whole world and I love you. Cass, too. Tell your sister I love her and put Grandma back on the phone, ok?"

"Ok. Bye, mommy."

"Bye, Jacob."

There was a short pause before Martha got back on the phone. "I know you'd have told me if you knew something, but I know you understand why I have to ask, Lois. Have you heard anything at all about Clark?"

Clark. Her missing husband, a man she never thought she had love as much as she did, hadn't even entered her mind since her shower. She had never been one to back down from multitasking, but she was going to have to come up with some sort of plan to find not only Clark, but Chloe's killers, too. There was so much to do and the people she had come to rely on weren't there. Suddenly a childhood of fending for herself came rushing back to her, when it had been Lois Lane versus the world. She didn't want it to be Lois Lane Kent, Jacob Kent and Cassidy Kent against the world. Remembering that the phone was still in her hand, Lois hit herself upside the head a couple times to refocus. "I'm sorry, Martha. I'm going to find him, but I'm so scattershot... I'll find something out and I'll call you as soon as I do."

"He's a survivor, Lois, you know that, and he wouldn't want you taking unnecessary risks."

"No such thing today," she muttered. "Will you do me a favor, Martha?"

"Whatever you need, Lois."

"Take Jacob and Cassidy and get away from the farm. What I didn't get a chance to tell you last night was that armed men attacked the house at the same time as the bombings. The house was burned down and I had to resort to stealing a car to escape the neighborhood. Of course, I nearly got run off the road as a result, but I made it to the city."

"My God, Lois! Are you injured?"

"Nothing more than bruises and a few scrapes. Please, though, get away from the farm. It's too predictable a place to find the kids, and not having gotten me they might resort to coming after you. I know they haven't come yet, which is a good sign, but there's no telling if they'll come today."

"All right, Lois. I'll get us packed up and we'll be gone within the hour."

"If you need any money-"

Martha cut her off before she could finish the sentence. "I have a rainy day fund that I think will be perfect for this. Is there anywhere you think we should go?"

"Drive to Kansas City and catch a flight to somewhere on the west coast. From there drive to Star City and find Ollie or Dinah. They'll take you in and be able to keep you guys safe if there is anybody that's coming after you."

"I understand. We'll be on the road in half an hour, and I'll call you when we arrive in Star City, ok?"

"Thank you for everything, Martha."

"Anything to keep my grandchildren safe. Be careful, Lois. Don't take any unnecessary risks."

"No more than I have to. Give Jacob and Cassidy my love, and keep a little for yourself." Hanging up the phone, Lois sat and stared at the wall for a moment before picking up the phone again. One more call to make to make sure that people were ok. And to not have to face what she knew was coming. It was probably one of the police stations that had been bombed. Odds were that it wasn't where had Chloe died. If only telling herself that cold make her feel better about the situation. She dialed and put the phone to her ear.

"H-hello?"

"Lucy?" It sounded like she was crying. "Lucy, it's Lois. What's wrong?"

"Lois? Good, you're ok. I was worried when I didn't hear from you last night. Tried calling but you wouldn't answer your cell and your house number wasn't working. I don't know what I would have done if something had happened to you, too."

"Me too..." Lois trailed off, her posture slumping as she sighed. "I guess you heard about Chloe, then."

"What? What about Chloe? Something happened to her?"

Perfect. This was exactly how she'd wanted this conversation to go. She hadn't even thought about telling Lucy about Chloe's death, but there wasn't going to be a good time to do it. "Lucy, Chloe got caught in the ice cream parlor explosion. She may have been the whole reason it happened. She, uh... she's on a list of the deceased I got from somebody in the military." Silence greeted the news on the other end of the phone. Understandable. "I'll be here when you're ready to talk, Lucy. Take your time." The line was quiet for a few minutes, and during that time Lois couldn't help but wonder who exactly it was that Lucy had referenced when telling her that she couldn't lose her too if it wasn't Chloe. She was going to feel like an ass for it, but she was going to end up asking about what had happened and who it had happened to.

"Lois?"

"I'm here, Luce."

"It's Jimmy. He went to get some shots of the police chief yesterday at their headquarters. It was bombed, and I haven't heard from him since. The only information I can get is by watching the news and the stuff they've shown is pictures of the building half caved in. He would have called, walked, sent a carrier pigeon, _anything_ to let Bridget and I know he was ok. He's... I just wish I knew something, anything, Lo."

Jimmy. She hadn't even thought about something having happened to Jimmy. What was he doing, going and taking photos of the police chief in his office during the weekend? He always did that stuff during the work week so he had the whole weekend with Lucy and Bridget. It must have been freelance work to pick up a few extra bucks. "I can check my list, Lucy, if you want me to. It was a preliminary list from last night, but if you want to know, I can look."

There was a short pause. "I... would you, please?"

"Give me a minute." Setting the phone down next to her on the bed, Lois got up and walked over to the desk. Flipping through the pages, she got to the list of the deceased with last names starting with O. There weren't that many, and no Olsen was among them. A good start. Flipping to the list of injured, she started going through the O names, but didn't find Jimmy on there. Walking back to the bed, she sat down and put the phone back to her ear. "He wasn't on either list, Lucy, that I saw. Good news and bad, I guess."

"I'm inclined to say that today I wholeheartedly disagree with the saying that no news is good news. No news is driving me to the edge of sanity, and I think my anxiety is rubbing off on Bridget because she's been acting up all day."

"I was in that situation with Jacob once. It was while I was on maternity leave..."

"You basically skipped your maternity leave and took Jacob to work with you everyday. You missed, what, five days of work? He saw more of the office than he did his own house most of the first six months of his life."

Lois rolled her eyes. "Ok, I guess that's technically true. I still considered it maternity leave because Perry agreed to let me work with Jacob in the office but wouldn't let me go out on assignment, which I guess I understand. Anyway, I'll put it this way: Jacob was about three weeks old and Perry sent Clark out on an assignment covering a hostage situation. He ended up getting stuck in the middle of it and I got very edgy the longer we went without news, which in turn had Jacob all worked up. What I'm trying to say is you don't know what, if anything, has happened to Jimmy. Don't fixate on the worst case scenario. Fixate on Bridget. If you let her she'll keep you distracted enough so that when you get word that Jimmy is okay, or even that he's hurt and getting treatment, you'll still have been worried but it won't have consumed you every hour of the day."

"What if he's dead, Lo? I don't know..."

Lois cut her off. "Hey. You know Jimmy better than I do, and I know him pretty well. He has proven three things to me over the years: that he can survive crazy circumstances, that he's a pretty damn good photographer and that he has a god awful sense of fashion. Plus, there's something about Olsens and my female relatives that I can't explain, but maybe you can."

"Sometimes it mystifies me too, Lois, but he won me over." There was a pause, and Lois was about to say something to fill the silence when Lucy beat her to it. "I know that when we were younger you had the close relationship with Chloe you and I never had, that she's always been more of a sister to you than I have..."

"Luce, stop. You have always been and always will be my sister, no matter what. For years I've considered Chloe a third Lane sister. You two were always equally important to me. It was just easier for me to be there for Chloe because she was actually in the States."

"Thank you, Lo. Still, I'm sorry you had to read her name on a list, that you had to find out that she was dead like that. It's not fair."

"Nothing about Chloe's life was fair for a long time, Lucy," Lois said, "and her death was an unfortunately fitting exclamation point on that unfairness." Holding the phone away from her ear, Lois stretched for a second and rolled her shoulders and neck. When this whole ordeal was done she was going to need a month of massages, or at least a week of sex with Clark where she never got out of bed. Clark missing. Chloe dead. God, it was too much. "I'm... I'm going to let you go. Take care of Bridget, Lucy, and yourself, too."

"Don't do anything crazy, Lois. It's crazy out there, and your patron saint Superman seems to be missing. Be careful."

Hanging up the phone, Lois picked it right back up, taking a second to compose herself before rolling her eyes. All she was doing was calling people, and none of it was making her feel any better. In fact, it was making her feel worse. Some wife she was. She was so focused on Chloe's death that she was going to have to subcontract the task of finding him. Pushing those thoughts aside, she would give herself ample time to feel guilty later. Right now it was time to focus on what she could do, and not what she hadn't been thinking about. Dialing the phone again, she stuck it up to her ear and waited a minute for an answer.

"Lois, I may not give many interviews but I have to think that you have better things to do today than get my perspective on what happened in Metropolis."

Lois couldn't help but frown at the phone. Did he actually think she was calling him for a quote in an article? "Maybe another time, Oliver. Today I just need your help."

"Oh, ok. What can I do for you?"

"I need your extensive _connections_ to help me find a certain Man of Steel. Nobody has heard a peep from him or seen a flash of red and blue since he went to India to help with that broken dam yesterday, and... and I'm worried. I think something has happened to him. He would be here working on the cleanup otherwise."

"All right. I haven't had much chance to watch the news, so I hadn't heard that Clark wasn't there to help."

"Haven't had much chance... what, did you find something more interesting going on?"

"You remember that wedding a few weeks ago? Dinah and I just got back from the honeymoon that followed that wedding. We had pretty much eschewed any contact with the outside world until today, including news. I had heard about what happened but I hadn't had a chance to get any real information yet."

"Here's the Cliff's Notes version: twelve bombs went off in Metropolis, eleven at strategic points and one in an ice cream parlor. Superman hasn't been spotted in the city since yesterday morning and I haven't seen Clark since he left a note on my desk at home saying he'd gone off to help people in India. A couple hours after that my house was attacked and burned down, I was hunted and nearly run off a bridge by some well trained people. And..." Lois stopped, unable to say her name again. "Chloe didn't make it."

"_Chloe_? Chloe was killed? Jesus Christ... I can't believe... I mean, after everything that she'd been through in Smallville and then helping Clark with everything in Metropolis for all those years you didn't know about him... I just assumed she had nine lives and had only used three or four."

"Guess we all have to be wrong sometime, Oliver. Um, obviously I'm going to be working on trying to find out who did this, but I can't figure out who murdered her and find Clark at the same time. I'd really appreciate it if you, and anybody else you can recruit to help out, would look for Clark."

"No, yeah, of course. I'll get the whole of the Justice League started on looking into his disappearance right away. He disappeared in India, you said?"

"Yeah. A dam burst somewhere, so it shouldn't be difficult to at least know where to start."

"We'll get on it. I'm sorry about Chloe."

"Me too, Ollie. Look, I hate to ask for another favor, but I need one. With the men that were chasing me yesterday I don't want to tap any of my bank accounts because it's a safe bet that it could be traced. With as much time as you spent in Metropolis, do you have an extra account I can borrow?"

"Yes, of course. If you go to the old Watchtower you'll find some cash to tide you over and a couple spare bank cards. I leave them there in case of emergencies, so use them as much as you need to. I promise, unless you buy a 747 it won't even make a dent."

She was about to say goodbye, but caught herself, remembering something. "Sorry, one last thing. The reason I called, actually. I'm having Martha, Jacob and Cassidy come out to Star City until the smoke clears so that they can stay with somebody friendly. They're going to fly in somewhere on the west coast and drive to Star City. I hope that won't be an imposition."

"No, of course not. They'll be safe here. Dinah will be by their side 24/7."

"Thank you, Ollie, for everything. When I get a cell I'll text you the number."

* * *

><p>Walking out of the old Watchtower, Lois looked up at the surrounding buildings. It was the first really productive hour of her day. It had taken about forty-five minutes to walk there, which hadn't been the productive part, but the fifteen minutes following the walk were pretty good. She had a thousand dollars cash in her pockets and a bank card with who knows how much money on it. Money certainly made the investigation simpler, especially considering that she now wasn't going to be looking over her shoulder as much as she would have using her own money. She was, in all likelihood, still being chased, and she couldn't forget that. She didn't think she would, but there were so many other things to get caught up in with everything else that had happened at some point it might slip her mind. And, if history was any indication, that would probably be the moment somebody started shooting at her.<p>

Deciding it was time to get things done, Lois made a mental list. First issue to take care of: she needed a cell phone, or even an available land line. Second issue: figure out everything that had happened regarding Chloe's death and Clark's disappearance. Third issue: take a month to do nothing but cry and hug her children. As she walked down the sidewalk, Lois was quick to dismiss the third issue: she would never be able to take a month off from work. Everybody had a vice, and if she didn't work she'd be depriving herself of hers. Checking all the stores, she finally came to one that looked like it would have disposable cell phones, but found it to be closed. Made sense, given the fact that there was basically nothing going on in the city and people were still being urged not to come into New Troy if they weren't all ready there. What was the point of opening for business if nobody was going to be there to buy stuff? She probably should have thought of this being a possibility.

Moving on from that store, she started skimming the windows of all the stores, slowing her walk so that she could catch a glimpse of the stores next to her and across the street. When she came to a corner, she noted that there had been one store open, and that had been a dry cleaners. Not exactly what she needed right now. After smelling her shirt, she amended that thought; she needed the dry cleaners, or at least a store that sold clothes. Her shirt reeked of smoke and sweat. Chewing on the inside of her cheek, she scanned the area, still not finding any other stores that were open. She could always go back to Watchtower and see if anybody had left any clothes there, but she wasn't sure those would fit her, assuming they weren't five years old and full of moth holes. Lois decided to update her mental list. First issue: find a cell phone _and_ some new clothes.

Continuing her aimless walk to see if she could find an open store with either clothes or a phones, Lois allowed herself a few minutes of brain inactivity. If she had to be honest with herself, she needed the break. Rarely did she turn her brain off, mostly because she rarely gave herself the chance to. One of those unfortunate problems that came with being a workaholic that didn't minimize time with her kids. Stopping at another street corner, she started glancing at the store fronts again, not finding any that looked to indicate being open for business. Squinting when some movement caught her eye, she spotted somebody way down the road walking towards her. She wasn't averse to running into people, but she would rather avoid contact for the moment. Turning to follow the sidewalk instead of crossing the street again, she found that she was now headed towards the center of the city. Closer to work, and closer to a lot of the bombing sites, too. Stopping by work was an option, if not one that appealed to her. It was also something that could very easily get her found. Having burned down her house, they would probably have thought of places to keep a lookout for her turning up, and if they had any brains in the operation the Daily Planet would be number one on the list, followed closely by Chloe's apartment.

At work she had a burner phone, a change of clothes and a wealth of research tools at her disposal. Even if she was only there for half an hour she could change, grab the phone, an updated lists of names and make a couple quick calls to people before heading out to check bombing sites. There was too much upside. Even if they were waiting for her there, it was a risk she was going to have to take. Lois had to hope it didn't come back to bite her in the ass.


	8. Chapter 8

- Chapter 8

"Sign here, please, and initial there and there." Signing and initialing for what felt like the thirtieth time each, Chloe watched as a the car salesman pulled the papers away and made sure that her Vicki Vale's and VV's were where they needed to be. "Well, Miss Vale, that finishes things up." He tossed the keys up in the air and Chloe caught them, offering a half-hearted smile. She had gone for one of the cheapest cars in the lot, but dropping $160,000 on transportation felt like going overboard. Sure, she had millions of dollars at her disposal, and sure, she needed a way to get around from point A to point B and the car drove like no other she had ever been in, but it was a _lot_ of money. Now that things had been finalized she was the owner of a really nice car and worrying about the money was a moot point. "If I may ask, Miss Vale, what prompted you to decide to buy a car today? I only opened as a gesture of defiance against the bombers, not expecting to see a soul on the street, let alone have somebody come in and buy something."

Chloe smiled half-heartedly again, shrugging as she stood up. "After one of the bombs exploded close to me yesterday and destroyed my car, I guess I said, 'Why not?' I was going to need a car anyway and yesterday proved that there's no time like the present."

"Near death spending. Not the first time it's given me business and I doubt it'll be the last. I appreciate your coming in today, Miss Vale and hope you'll think of us the next time you need the best car you can buy."

Walking out of the office and the dealership, Chloe unlocked the door of her new car, which was parked next to the curb, and got inside, settling into the seat and looking around. She owned a car worth more than what she would have made in two years at the Planet. Had her life gone the way she had imagined, with a career in journalism and perhaps a family instead of attempting to murder Lex, she would never have owned a car like the one she had just bought. One of these days she was going to have to get some counseling for all the guilt she was carrying around. That, or at least try to think about it less. Maybe the secret was being extremely busy, followed by being so exhausted she could barely think. She had gotten so caught up in the training, day in and day out, she had never given herself time to think about trying to kill Lex, at least not any more than her teachers had forced her to. Maybe that was why Bruce had sent her somewhere new as soon as she had gotten back to Gotham, the few times she'd had a chance to return.

Putting the car into first gear, Chloe pulled out onto the empty road. Stopping at a blinking red light, she didn't have to stay stopped for very long due to the fact that there was nobody else on the road. She had money and now she had a mode of transportation. Now all she needed was a clue as to who might have more information and where such people might be. She had already gone to her most reliable former 'heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy' guy. She had only remembered him because situations like this didn't come up everyday, but they did seem to come up more often in Metropolis than some other cities and he had always had an ear to the ground. Who else, though? Running through her mental list of former unnamed sources, an extensive list she had never shared with anybody, Chloe narrowed down her list to a few people that might know something. She didn't know what they might know beyond the simple fact that Mr. Stanton had been looking for good people that had lost friends and family to violence. For all she knew that whole situation might not even be related to the bombing, but her old source had seemed all too ready to share the information because it had stood out in his mind. This was discounting the fact that he had been all too ready to share, period.

His information was interesting information, but it was information easily given, and the man had a history of needing a bit of coaxing. She had always thought he had liked her, but she had gone to him this time as an acquaintance of a former newspaper worker, which meant there was no guarantee he had given with 100% accuracy or even given everything he had known. But, needing to keep Chloe Sullivan dead, she'd had to leave sooner than later. This was the problem with being dead. Where as Chloe Sullivan she'd had people trying to kill her, now that she was no longer Chloe Sullivan she was going to have a tough time taking advantage of everything she could have done more easily as herself. All she had as Vicki Vale was a job in Gotham and a life she had never lived. Complications sucked. Complications had to be ignored, though. Trying to remember phone numbers she hadn't thought about in years, she was drawing a blank. She could remember where at least one had kept a base of operations, for lack of a better term, so that was going to have to be a start. Waiting for one of the few cars she'd seen all day to pass, Chloe turned left and switched gears as the speed limit allowed her to give it more juice. Overkill or not, at least she had a hell of a car.

* * *

><p>Hands in pockets, Chloe looked at the address on the building, but more specifically looked at the building. It was familiar, which was a good indicator that she was remembering the right place. The only downside was that she had no way to tell if the guy she was looking for would still live here. People had a tendency to not always be in the same place, and she'd been lucky to find the first guy she'd talked to. Hopefully she'd be two for two after this. Walking up the steps, she buzzed the apartment that used to be his, waiting a moment before there was an answer. "Yes?"<p>

A woman's voice. Not exactly what she'd hoped to hear. "Hi. I'm looking for Curtis. We used to work together and I need to talk to him." Silence greeted her, and she was about to push the button again when a man's voice came over the intercom.

"A man has two coins that add up to thirty cents. One of them isn't a nickel. What two coins does he have?"

Chloe smiled. That was what she had wanted to hear. "Who cares? Thirty cents doesn't buy anything and just makes me wish I had more money."

"Come on up." The door buzzed and clicked and Chloe pulled it open, grinning. Curtis had always been a little paranoid and hated riddles so anybody that answered the riddle wasn't let up. The guy who knew a guy that knew a guy hadn't bothered to tell her that little fact and it had taken her four attempts to talk to him to figure out that answering whatever riddle he presented meant she wasn't getting inside. Taking the stairs two at a time, she quickly got up to the third floor and walked past a few doors before knocking on Curtis'. It opened quickly. Walking inside, Chloe stopped five steps in and faced a wall, spreading her arms out and placing them on said wall. She heard the door shut and a couple locks click into place before she was promptly patted down. Maybe Curtis was more than a little paranoid, but after the bombings she'd hardly blame anybody for this. It had just brought him in from the fringes a little closer to the masses.

"Been years since we've talked, Chloe, and last I'd heard you weren't even working in the news anymore. Like the hair and glasses, by the way." One of his hands made its way up her shirt, fingers probing the edges of her bra and between her breasts as he did his usual wire check. The first time he had done that without warning she had nearly punched him and left. Once she was sure there was nothing sexual about it, just his desire not to be recorded, she lived with it. This time it was the most action she'd had in years, but she still could have lived without. "Not that it isn't great to see you again, but what are you doing here?"

Straightening out her shirt, Chloe turned to face him. He was neither short nor tall, falling somewhere in the middle. He was plain looking, too. He was just kind of... bland. There wasn't anything about him that made him stand out, which was probably why he was so good at getting information. People probably weren't even aware he was in a room half the time. Something of an informant cliché, really, but when a cliché got her good information she wasn't going to say anything. "People tried to blow up the city yesterday, Curtis. More to the point, somebody tried to blow me up and I find that annoying. Good reason to get back into the game, or at least get information so I can know who to hit and turn in to the authorities."

Without a word he walked past her and she followed him deeper into the apartment. Spotting what she presumed to be the woman that had answered her initial buzz up, they walked past her into a bedroom. He shut the door behind her. "Look, Chloe, I don't know what you've heard, but I really..."

"Mr. Stanton. Who, what, where, when and a whole lot of why."

"Who? Nobody knows. He's been working through third and fourth tier associates, as far as I can tell. People that he trusts but probably can't lead directly back to him. When? First got wind of him about two and a half years ago, give or take. Month after that he's recruiting, picking up people that have lost people to violence, but don't ask me why, at least not for that. Why? Turn on the news."

"These are all things I know, Curtis. I also know that unless you've become a different person in the past four years you've dug deeper and probably have something on him nobody else does, like the big reason he would need to bomb the city. Hell, you might be the only one who can tell me for sure it was him, because so far all I can confirm is that it's a rumor."

"It's him, Chloe. I can't confirm that for you, but I think it adds up. When you look at what's happened, add it to the type of people he was recruiting and the fact that Superman is missing... I think this Mr. Stanton guy recruited people that had not only lost loved ones to violence, but people that blamed Superman for not saving those lost. He saves so many, the ones he doesn't are bound to have people left behind asking why their loved one wasn't saved. I seriously doubt it's a coincidence that the bombings happened and Superman isn't around. His not being here is related. It has to be. Something is keeping him away. So the city is bombed and he isn't here. I think it all boils down to revenge. They found a way to keep him out of Metropolis, and while he isn't here they detonated the bombs. Now a lot more people feel like they did when their family member or friend couldn't be saved because a lot of people lost family and friends yesterday."

Chloe didn't quite know what to say to that. She hadn't thought about Clark not being around all that much, which she figured put her in the dumbass category for the moment. She had been so busy dealing with the personal side of somebody trying to blow her up that her big picture thinking had been dimmed. At least now that she'd had it indirectly pointed out to her she could do her best to fix it. "So your theory is that these people want to kill Superman's image? Destroy the goodwill he's built up over the years by having disaster strike while he isn't here?" Sighing, Chloe ran a hand through her hair. "It's not illogical, but how could they capture Superman?" Shaking her head, Chloe sighed. Something else to try and figure out. "Look, I'm going to get out of your hair. I want to go to bomb sites, ask questions and see if I can't glean something from the authorities. I have a request, though."

"I'm not making any promises, Chloe."

"It's nothing big, Curtis. Well, biggish. I've been reported dead and I need it to stay that way. As such, I was never here and you never saw me."

"_That_ I can do."

Chloe moved to open the door but paused with her hand on the knob before turning back to him. "Who's the woman out in the living room? Never seen you have anybody here when I was here before."

"That's my wife."

"_You_ got married? You barely leave your apartment!"

He shrugged and smiled. "Never underestimate the power of good luck when you go out to get a beer."

"Unbelievable," Chloe muttered, opening the door and walking out of the room. Flashing a quick smile to Curtis' wife as she passed through the room, she let herself out of the apartment, the door thudding behind her. Leaving the building, she started walking down the sidewalk, losing herself in thought.

It was too easy, wasn't it? Easy to believe never worked for her and Mr. Stanton just seemed too easy an answer. No, basically disregarding the information she had been given and despite Occam's Razor blaring in her head she just kept coming back to Lex. There was no other reason for a suicide bomber to pick her exact location as a target just a moment after she entered. It made no sense. She'd had some bad luck and misfortune in her life, but that would take the cake, the pie and even a few cookies. Walking into the parking garage that held her car, Chloe followed the ramp down to the bottom level, finding her car right where she'd left it. Unlocking the door and getting inside, she waited a moment to turn it on. She was going to have to be careful about how she approached bombing sites. Even with it having been roughly four and a half years since she had run into most of the people that would be covering this, she ran the risk of being recognized. Sure, she was leaner, her hair was a different color and she was wearing glasses and heavy, dark makeup, but on the off chance it happened it was going to cause grief she didn't need. Figuring it was just something she would deal with if she had to, Chloe turned on the car and pulled out.

* * *

><p>Making sure her new press pass was still clipped to her pocket, Chloe walked slowly up to the smoldering ruins of a fire station. There were three fire trucks parked in the road in front of where the building had been, a space now occupied by one standing wall and a lot of rubble. There had been plenty of collateral damage to the buildings surrounding the former fire station. The large chunks of wall that were missing and the scorch marks on the remaining wall area painted a grim picture of what had happened. Grinding her teeth as she walked, she sped her pace up a little bit until she got to where a few people had gathered, some behind police tape and some in front. Flashing her press pass at an officer, he lifted up the line of tape for her and she walked under it, approaching what appeared to be a group of reporters just standing around. One of them nodded towards her, alerting the others that she was there. Four other heads turned and watched her approach. Jesus, it was like she was a new kid in school or something. "So, anything new popped up in the last hour?" she asked, hoping it would break the ice.<p>

One of them, a man, smiled at her and offered a handshake, which she took him up on. "Dan McCall, Reuters."

"C-" She caught herself and cleared her throat, hoping they hadn't noticed that it wasn't one long throat clearing. "Sorry, forgot how to talk for a moment there. Vicki Vale, Gotham_ Gazette_."

"Didn't know that you guys would be sending somebody out here."

"I joined the _Gazette_ recently and was all ready in town visiting a friend from college and getting to know her kids." Well, there was a shred of truth in that. She had been trying to get to know Jacob and Cassidy better since she had come back to Metropolis. "I wasn't supposed to start for another three weeks, but something like this happens and you start early."

"What's your main beat?"

"Depends on where I've been" she said, "but mostly it has been features and investigation pieces with some hero coverage thrown in now and then."

He nodded, but she could tell he wasn't impressed. "Yeah, I've done the super hero coverage before. It's interesting, don't get me wrong, but it's so difficult to break anything new that it rarely seems worth it. Mostly it just becomes singing the praises or griping about vigilantism, depending upon which side of the debate you fall on."

"I tend to be more of a sing the praises gal."

"Works for me." He pointed at the guy next to him. "Casey Rydell of the New York _Times_." He pointed at the woman next to Casey. "Daniella Hurley of the Washington _Post_. Next to her is Natalie Whitaker of the local ABC affiliate and last is Jeremy Goodman, CBS_ Evening News_. About half an hour from now there's going to be a little conference, nothing formal, with some Q&A that doesn't have nearly as much A as it does Q."

"AKA standard disaster procedure. Predictable, yet somehow it always disappoints." Looking around, she slipped her pen and pad of paper in a back pocket. "Guess the other bombing sites are more popular coverage points than this one."

"We've got people at every site," Jeremy said, "though mostly it's producers and cameramen. I'm sure most do. Heard a few of the big European news organizations even got some people in from their usual spots in New York and Los Angeles. As far as I've noticed city hall and police headquarters have been the big media gathering points. A number seem to like the ice cream place because it's such an oddity. Must think they'll be able to figure something out while they're there."

"As good a hunch as any," Chloe said. She didn't really have anything to add after that, listening to the others fall into conversation on who had orchestrated the attack when her phone started ringing. Excusing herself, she pulled the phone out of her pocket as she walked away and inspected the number on the screen. The only thing she could tell was that it was a Gotham area code. "Vicki Vale," she answered, figuring it best to stay undercover no matter what.

"It's Bruce. I've set you up in the executive penthouse at the Hilton for as long as you need to be there and had a few things delivered for you. What have you found so far?"

"Not a whole lot. I talked to another old source and he was saying a lot of the same things that the first guy was, talking about a Mr. Stanton recruiting people that had lost loved ones to violence. He thinks that this whole thing is about destroying Superman's image, that the recruited people are ones mad at Superman because he saves so many but not their loved ones. He's usually right about these things, but I need more proof, or at least want more."

"I haven't found anything substantive on a Mr. Stanton yet. It may take some time before we get the evidence you want but I think your source may be on to something. I need to try and track down Superman because his disappearance _is_ most likely part of the bigger scheme. Queen sent a message for everyone to meet, I assume to set up a search for Superman."

"Sounds about right," Chloe muttered, "and Superman missing is either part of this or a huge coincidence." Glancing back at the other reporters, Chloe took another few steps in the other direction. "A penthouse, Bruce? _Really_? I'm sure that the hotels are filled with people displaced by the residential bombs, but I could have found something."

"It wasn't necessary but it gives you a place to work where you won't be disturbed by anybody and keeps you where you need to be. Plus, you're a reporter for the Wayne Enterprises owned Gotham_ Gazette_, so just say that I had you put in the room. It won't be a lie."

"I guess that fits in with your public persona of throwing money around. Look, I should go. There's going to be a little thing with an official in a little while and I should appear like I'm ready for it."

"All right. Be careful, Chloe."

"I'll keep that in mind."

* * *

><p>An hour and an extremely useless Q&amp;A session later, Chloe walked away from the firehouse feeling like she'd gained nothing from her time there except that she now knew the official stance on just about every question that had been asked, which was that they would share any pertinent information as they got it. All that meant was that they didn't know anything. Pulling the top page off her notepad and crumpling it up, she dropped it in a garbage can as she walked by, deeming it an apt metaphor for the whole situation. Chewing on her lip as she got to her car she looked skyward, finding fading sunlight peeking through the buildings. Considering the curfew was still in effect, this meant that her day was officially at an end. Not exactly what she needed. Getting into it, she pulled out of her parking spot and drove to the Hilton, pulling up in front. Getting out, she tossed her keys to the valet, surprised that there was even one there. Going inside, she stopped at the front desk. "My name's Vicki Vale, and I was told that I had the executive penthouse reserved for me."<p>

"Welcome, Miss Vale. We were very please to hear from Mr. Wayne, and are glad he chose to have you stay with us. Here's your keycard," the woman across from her said as she slid it across the counter. She tapped at her computer keyboard for a second, then took a small printout and handed it to her. "And that is your elevator code. We have a private elevator for you to use, so if you'll proceed to room 215, it will be available to you."

She had to go to a room to have a private elevator available to her? Why did she even need a private elevator? Shrugging off those questions, she had one that she really wanted to ask. "How many people even know about the executive suite?"

"I'd say about the same number of people that can afford $25,000 an evening."

Chloe smiled to try and cover her shock at the amount of money and walked away, taking the stairs up to the second floor and finding room 215. Sliding her keycard, she opened the door and walked into what appeared to be a normal room. As she proceeded inside she found that the area that should have been for the beds was an elevator door. Confused, she pushed the button next to the door and it opened. Stepping inside, she pushed the 'up' button. A little panel popped out, with a spot for her to slide her keycard and a number pad for the code she'd been given. Apparently putting an elevator in room 215 wasn't secretive enough and they _really_ didn't want anybody trying to go up to this penthouse. It was beyond absurd at this point but she went ahead and swiped the keycard and punched in the code she had been given. The elevator started its upward motion smoothly, not stopping until it got to the top floor, where it opened up straight into her room.

Considering the apartment Bruce had bought for her on her return to Metropolis, she hadn't thought she would be all that impressed, but this was a hell of a place. She had an entire floor to herself, maybe two. Vaulted ceilings, a chandelier, two massive bedrooms that she could see, and probably more she couldn't. Why Bruce had thought she would need this much space, she would never know. Walking into the bigger of the two bedrooms she found a laptop sitting on the bed. That must be what he had meant when he said he'd had a few things delivered. Walking over to the closet she opened the door, expecting a big empty room but finding it full of clothes. There had to be at least ten pairs of shoes underneath the clothes that were hanging up, and the assortment of clothes inside was better than anything she had ever owned. If Bruce kept doing things like this for her she was going to have to start calling him her Sugar Daddy. Actually, next time they talked she might do that anyway just for the fun of it.

Exiting the closet, Chloe picked up the laptop and turned it on, taking a seat on the bed to use it more comfortably. After going through all the setup steps she was finally able to get onto the internet and started searching around, seeing what useful information she could find on the bombings. Going from one news website to another, she stopped when she saw that there was an interview with a guy about the one at the ice cream parlor. Curious, she clicked on it and the video popped up. "I'm Melinda Valdez of Metropolis News Online. I'm here with Robert Lincoln, who was at the site of the ice cream parlor bombing. Please, Mr. Lincoln, describe the situation."

"Um, well, we were there to celebrate my daughter Lindsay's fifth birthday. There wasn't much going on until a man came in waving around a gun, telling everybody but a lady and her two kids to get out. It was weird, because they'd just walked in a minute before he came in. But he came in, waving a gun around while wearing a big, bulky shirt at an odd time of year, and told everybody to leave. Obviously nobody argued and everybody got out and started running. I got my wife, daughter and the other kids away safely but wanted to do something. There wasn't anything I could do to take the gun away but I had been recording the party so I turned on the camcorder and began making my way back, hoping to at least catch his face for the police to ID him. When I was getting closer the woman that had been told to stay inside suddenly ran outside, sprinting away from the building until the bomb exploded. I was about half a block away when it went off, and, well, I guess we can let the video show what I'm saying."

The reporter turned away from Robert to face the camera. "This is video that Mr. Lincoln shot of the ice cream parlor bombing. It is graphic in nature."

Chloe was then watching a shaky camera view as it jogged towards the ice cream parlor. "My name's Robert Lincoln and I just witnessed a man stickup an ice cream parlor. I'm taking this video and my wife is going to call the police. I'm hoping to get the face of the robber on camera to help the police." The shaky video continued on silently for a few seconds, and then suddenly Chloe saw herself bolting out of the ice cream parlor, though fortunately the camera work sucked so there was never a good look at her face, and maybe three seconds later the building exploded behind her. She winced as she saw herself thrown into the side of the a car, falling to the ground limp and unconscious with a coat of mortar and dust descending towards her. God, that just made her feel like she was ten times as lucky as she'd thought she was not to get hit by anything more than small debris. "_Holy shit_! Holy shit!" The camera picture went sideways for a second after that, and then went to black.

Melinda Valdez appeared on the screen again, and she turned back to Robert. "What happened after you turned the camera off Mr. Lincoln?"

"Uh, well, I was scared as hell and ran to find my wife and the kids to get them a safe distance away. Obviously I didn't know that half the city was going to explode right after that and there was nowhere really safe to go, but that's the first thing that popped into my head, getting everybody to safety. I feel bad, not having checked on the woman, but there wouldn't really have been anything I could have done for her."

"Did you see anything to suggest that her children had been let go before she ran?"

"No, no I didn't. All I can hope is that the bomber had some mercy on the kids and let them go, which is why she decided to make a run for it. I mean, that's all I can guess, because I don't think any mom would run and leave her kids."

"Let's hope she didn't. I'm Melinda Vazquez for Metropolis News Online."

"Perfect," Chloe said, grumbling and turning off the video. If it wasn't all ready the video was going to be all over the news networks. Not what she needed or wanted. And now people might think she had run off and left Jacob and Cassidy to get blown up! She wasn't even a mom and she was going to be labeled a bad one by the media. How was that helpful? The only consequence she could be sure of was that her supposed death might not be believed quite so easily now, not with video evidence of her not being blown up. Sure, she had taken a hell of a hit, but visual evidence of her not getting blown to pieces was only going to make people want to try and confirm her death by seeing her body. "Just what I need," Chloe said to the empty room as she closed the laptop, "the potential for people chasing me." She couldn't catch a break.


	9. Chapter 9

- Chapter 9

God, having the potential for people chasing her sucked.

Keeping tight to the corner of a building, Lois peeked around the edge to see how many people, if any, were out in front of the _Planet_ building. She knew the answer, but going through the motions and checking was the smart thing to do. Much like many of the streets she had been on, it was empty. Since venturing out of her hotel room she'd seen roughly fifteen people, no more than two at once. Maybe five cars had passed her all day, including when she had been looking out her hotel window. Resigned to putting herself out in the open in an extremely predictable place, Lois moved quickly as she left the sidewalk, taking long strides as she walked across the street. She kept her eyes on as many places as she could at once, every nook and cranny where somebody could hide holding her attention. She felt like she was falling into the traps of paranoia, feeling like somebody could jump out and attack her, but getting attacked out of the blue tended to do that to a person.

Walking into the building, she gave a nod to the security guard as he let her pass the front desk and go into an open elevator. She could count on one hand how many times an elevator had been there, waiting for her in the lobby or up in the bullpen, not counting late nights. Not having to stop to drop people off and pick people up quickened the pace of the trip by a good margin, and with a loud ding she was walking into the bullpen. She had never seen the office so empty during daylight hours, when even on weekends it could teem with life. It was a creepy feeling, walking through the mostly empty floor. There was normally so much movement and chatter that she was weaving her way through people and having to speak over the top of other conversations. The emptiness of it, with sun shining through the windowed walls illuminating everything... creepy wasn't right. Disconcerting. Disconcerting was a very good word for it.

"Lois?"

Stopping and turning, she spotted a familiar man walking up to her. "Ron. Good to see you."

"Right back at you. Everybody was worried that you were dead."

"Dead? No. I wasn't even in the city when the bombs were going off."

"I would say that's lucky but with your house burning down and it reportedly being arson, we were all thinking the worst, despite your propensity for surviving ridiculous situations."

So that had made the news, too. She'd been too wrapped up in everything else going on to think about whether or not that would have been reported. "It was arson, but who the hell is reporting that? Better yet, who in the world is investigating my house burning down when the city is getting attacked like this? I know that the government always says don't let the terrorists win, but there are priorities."

He stood stock still for moment, and she motioned with a hand for him to start his explanation of what was going on. "It came over the wire from somebody at the _Star_, I think. And as far as who's investigating... don't you want to know who burned down your house?"

"I beat the hell out of the guys that burned down my house, Ron," Lois said, pulling a hand through her hair to get it out of her eyes. "They probably won't find any non-incriminating evidence now they couldn't find later, after they've figured out this whole city being bombed thing. Whatever. I'll deal with that later. Where's Perry?"

"He's out doing-"

She held up a hand, stopping him mid sentence. Perry White wouldn't be anywhere but in his newsroom making sure that the next day's morning edition was ready to print. "He's _out_? Why in the world would he be _out_?"

"If you'd have let me finish, I would have told you that he was covering a couple press conferences. He said that this is too important a story to let just anybody go cover it, and won't be able to get back before the curfew kicks in, so he'll email us anything he writes."

"That doesn't sound like him. He'd never abandon the office at a time like this, no matter what."

"The world has been turned upside down, Lois. People are afraid to come into the city. They don't want to risk another attack, no matter how unlikely, and so they aren't coming to the city, which means they aren't coming to work. The people that are here are mostly the fresher faces trying to make a name, people that live in the city, the photographers and then you, Perry and I. Most people Perry had already sent out and he didn't want to leave, but with the shortage of reporters did you really expect an old news hound like him to just sit in his office and wait around? He has sources he can meet and he can still write like a pro, so he did what he thought was the best for the paper."

"But who's running the place?"

"I am."

Lois raised an eyebrow, smiling. "Seriously?"

"Yes."

"Okay, then we're going to go ahead and revise things a little bit. How many people do we have here from each department?"

"A couple from Metro, including you, three from Sports, two from Lifestyle and me, running the show."

That wasn't much to work with. She chewed on the inside of her cheek, trying to figure out what could be done. "And how many people have been in total since the bombings?"

"Not many more than what I just told you. Two of the sports guys just got back in town and came straight here after their flights were diverted to Kansas City. They're young and don't have any family in the area. We also have six out in the field, seven counting Perry. He's redistributed a little bit, but he's been out trying to get the story most of today."

"Who's here from City?"

"Laura."

"All right, here's what were going to do. Move the guys from sports to city to work under Laura. She's smart and can figure out who fits where. Sports can be wire reports and betting lines, and since there isn't anything going on locally for obvious reasons they won't have anything to write about anyway. When Perry gets back in tomorrow we can run it by him, but move one of the lifestyle people too, preferably the one with the more relevant writing style towards what we need. Send him or her to me and I'll make sure they have an assignment that fits them. As for you, I want you to write the longest Op-ed you can manage. Break out your inner wordsmith and use everything in your arsenal. I'm going to give you the full page, so have it to me in five hours. Oh, and find a stock photo of the city or something along those lines that we can blow up and put in the middle of the page. We'll trim your piece as necessary to fit around the picture."

"So, that's it? You're just going to come in to work and without Perry here take over?" Ron frowned for a second, looking away. "I think he has warned us about this happening."

"Very funny." Sadly, she was sure that he wasn't mistaken. Perry did seem to think that he was the only thing stopping her from taking over the paper, which wasn't true at all. Clark was also a huge thing standing between her and taking over the paper. Why would she want to give up such a good partner? Plus, it's not like she would do anything differently than Perry. He was the best. "What would you rather do, Ron? Figure out how the hell we're going to make sure we put together a good paper, let alone get it out tomorrow, or spend the next few hours writing a full page Op-ed that will very likely win you a Kerth, if not a Pulitzer?"

"Kerth or Pulitzer, that would put me one ahead of you."

"Ahead of and better than are two entirely different things, Ron. Remember that. Side note: when Perry emails in, don't tell him I'm here. He'll want to talk to me about everything that's happened and that'll just take time away from what we need to accomplish. Now get to writing and don't bother me until you've put many words onto paper. Spread the word that if anybody has questions I'll take them, but if they ask me something stupid I will throw things at them. I'll be in Perry's office."

She was about to walk past him, but he stopped her with a hand on her arm. "We heard about Chloe. Some of us are still here that worked with her, and we just... I wanted to say, on behalf of the office, we're all very sorry. I know how close you two were, and she was one of the best I ever worked with not named Lois Lane, Clark Kent or Perry White."

Lois offered up the best smile she could manage, which was a wisp of one at best. "Thanks. Um, like I said, I'll be in Perry's office." A few steps later she stopped, spinning on her heel to find Ron still standing where he'd been. "Oh, and if anybody you don't know comes in the bullpen, let me know. I may or may not still have people trying to kill me."

"_Still_?"

"I was in my house when they set it on fire."

"Are Clark and the kids ok?"

Lois rubbed at her neck, trying to work out some of the stress knots. "Jacob and Cass are fine. They're with their Grandmother visiting some family friends. Clark..." Unfortunately, there was only one believable story she could think to use to explain why he wasn't there and might not be there for a while if he stayed missing. "Clark was in the city and I haven't heard from him. Make this opportunity count, Ron, because you'll never get a full page to yourself again."

Getting into Perry's office, Lois shut the door and leaned back against it for a second. People were going to tell her that Clark was dead, but that he was in the city when the bombs went off was a lie she was going to have to tell. She couldn't say that he was out of town, or at the farm. He wouldn't just drop his job like that. People in the office weren't going to look at her and see Lois Lane, best damn reporter they had ever met anymore. No, they were going to see her and feel sorry for her because her cousin was dead and her husband was missing. She slammed a fist back against the door, gritting her teeth and trying to shake it off as she stopped leaning against the door. No more leaning. She couldn't control what happened to Chloe, and she couldn't control whatever was going on with Clark, but Jacob and Cassidy were safe and she could still do her job. And at least for today, she was damn well going to make sure that the _Daily Planet_ put out a top notch edition.

* * *

><p>"I don't care what you think would be best right now! What's best is that we put out a good paper, and if we do what you want people are going to be so damn confused that they'll stop reading three pages in. Here's what you're going to do: think about the question you just asked me and then ask yourself, 'What would Perry tell me if I asked him this same question?' because whatever he would say is what I will say, and I don't want to take the time to say it. Just get it done." Hanging up the phone, Lois blew some hair out of her eyes for what felt like the tenth time in an hour. Standing up, she walked out of Perry's office and made her way to her own, opening up drawers to find some kind of hair tie. She found one in and among the change of clothes she still hadn't had a chance to put on. Nothing she had aimed to do while in the office had gotten done. She hadn't made calls. She hadn't made up a list of people to talk to. All that had happened was that she had been so dumbfounded that Perry had left to cover things that she'd just taken over his job instead of doing what she had set out to.<p>

After pulling her hair back into a ponytail, she grabbed the new clothes and set them on her desk. Closing her office door, she pulled off her shirt, dropping it into a chair before repeating the process with her bra, pulling on the one she'd had stashed in her desk. Normally she wasn't one to expose her bare back to the office through her windows, let alone her breasts to the outside world, but right now she really didn't care. After buttoning up the fresh shirt, she stepped out of her shoes and pants and pulled on the new jeans. Gathering her dirty clothes, she put them in an empty chair, and after putting her shoes back on she walked back out onto the floor. As soon as she stepped out of her office Laura walked up and started following her as she walked. "Lois, I know that you wanted me to run Metro, but I don't think there's a lot I can do with the guys from Sports. We have people out there sending stories in, so I don't know what I'm supposed to do with them."

"Jesus, Laura, this isn't difficult. There are a million stories out there to be written, and all that needs to be done is an hour or two of research." She stopped walking, taking a calming breath before turning and facing the younger woman. "We've worked together for a couple years now. I wouldn't be having you run Metro if I didn't think you could do it. You've seen both Clark and I do the same thing, so just do what we'd do. Or, as I've been telling other people today, just ask yourself what Perry would do and that should answer a lot of your questions. Hey, if you're not comfortable running things, that's fine. I can make sure that everything runs smoothly. But this is a big opportunity for you. If you do this well, suddenly Perry is going to have a whole lot more confidence in you. I'm going to know that in a tough spot, I can rely on you, and so will he. This is an opportunity. I know you're good enough. Do you?"

"Yeah. Yeah, of course I do," Laura said, suddenly breaking out into a smile. "Just nerves, I guess, after everything. I just haven't ever covered something so big. A story this big is more your territory."

"You know what the trick is? Treat it no differently than a usual article. Do your research, check your facts, make sure your sources are good and write the way that got you hired at the _Daily Planet_. We only have the best here, so show that. And if you ever make me give you another pep talk like this, telling you what you already know, I swear I'll give you so much busy work that your grandchildren will still be doing research."

"Right. Okay, gonna go make sure we have good articles tomorrow."

"Good. You know where to find me if you have any questions." Entering Perry's office again, Lois sat down behind the desk, letting her head rest back against the chair as she yawned widely. This was not her idea of the best job ever. Telling people to do what they already know they should, getting people to realize they could do what she asked of them... she would go insane if she had Perry's job full time. She had only been at it a couple hours and she was ready to abdicate her throne. Unfortunately, her doing Perry's job while he was covering the bombings was best for the paper. Ron was good, but she had always thought he was too slow in pulling the trigger on decisions, which was exactly what they didn't need. Starting up the word processor, Lois took a moment, waiting to see if there was anything that was going to interrupt her. Maybe she had put out all the fires and might just get a minute to herself. More likely the embers were about to turn into blazes again, and she was just catching a small break. As it was, at least she would have time to start. Stretching her fingers, she started typing.

A letter to the people that attacked my home and city:

You are all cowards. Come and get me.

Signed with malicious intent,

Lois Lane Kent

That probably wouldn't really do very well as an editorial.

A beep from the computer drew her attention away from what she was trying and failing to do, and she pulled up an email that had been sent to her. It was from one of the sports guys she had sent to Laura, telling her to turn on Channel 8. Searching for the remote to the TV Perry had mounted on the wall next to the door, she found it and turned the TV on, flipping to the channel. "Again, Channel 8 News has acquired video footage of the bombing of the ice cream parlor. We do warn you that this footage could be construed as graphic in nature." The ice cream parlor? How the hell had somebody gotten footage of that explosion? Getting out of her chair, she walked around the desk and stood close to the television. The picture changed to that of a shaky camera.

"My name's Robert Lincoln and I've just witnessed a man stickup an ice cream parlor. I'm taking this video and my wife is going to find a phone to call the police. I'm hoping to get the face of the robber on camera to help the police." Watching with wide eyes, the shaky video continued on silently for a few seconds, and then a woman was running out of the ice cream parlor, though unfortunately the camera work sucked so there was never a good look at a face, and maybe a couple seconds later the building exploded. The picture jumped but stayed focused as the woman was thrown into the side of the a car and hit her head hard, falling to the ground limp and unmoving, with the remnants of the building falling around her. "Holy (bleep)! Holy (bleep)!" The camera picture went sideways for a second after that, and then went to black.

That... that had been Chloe. She stood there slack-jawed, trying to process what she had just seen. She hadn't been _in_ the explosion. After she had sent Jacob and Cassidy running she must have tried to take the guy out and found the explosives. Had she just seen her die? That hadn't looked like enough to kill her, but if she had hit her head hard enough there could have been bleeding in her brain, or something could have happened after the video had been turned off... Chloe had been reported dead. People didn't lie about those things, not in real life. Well, besides when Chloe had been declared dead by Lex in Smallville, and that other time when her meteor power had saved her, leaving Chloe to wake up in the Smallville morgue. This didn't appear to line up with the usual oddities that had dominated their youth, and she didn't have somebody rich pulling her out of a crazy situation this time, either.

Gathering up her courage, Lois hit the rewind button, pausing when she got to the part where Chloe's body was lying on the ground. "I'm going to figure out who did this, Chlo. I'm going to make sure that your killer is put in prison for a very long time." Swiping at her right eye with her thumb, she smiled sadly. "I love you, Chloe." Turning off the television, she stood there staring at the blank screen until the phone rang. Looking back at it, she turned and picked up the receiver. Back to work.


	10. Chapter 10

- Chapter 10

Sitting up slowly, Chloe reached over to the night stand and picked up her phone. Sleepily, she answered, "Hello?"

"Where the hell are you, Sullivan?" Perry asked loudly, forcing Chloe to pull the phone away for a second and blink a few times. "When I set you up in the safe house I expected you to actually be spending nights here."

After a failing attempt to rub the sleep out of her eyes, Chloe let them slide back closed. "Perry, isn't it a little early in the morning for a verbal beat down? I was in the middle of a very, _very_ good dream involving a beautiful man wearing absolutely nothing. It's a cliché, but it's a nice cliché."

"It's 7:30am, which in the old days was when you always showed up for work."

"I don't work at the _Planet_ anymore, Perry."

"You're working with me again, so that means you're going to start early. Where the hell are you?"

"I'm in the Hilton executive suite, Perry. I have a good friend with a lot of money that set me up here. It's part of a cover story that I work for the Gotham_ Gazette_. And before you go blowing up about this," she said, knowing that Perry very well might go off at that news, "this was done without my knowledge. I'd just asked somebody for a little monetary help and suddenly I had a new identity, complete with birth certificate, driver's license, bank account and press pass."

"What kind of friend has the ability to put that kind of thing together?"

"A very reliable friend that helped me through some tough times. No names, Perry. Consider him an anonymous source."

While she waited for Perry to respond, Chloe opened her eyes again, and found the world to be not quite as blurry as it had been. "Fine. The reason I called and stopped by the safe house is because I want to talk to you about the video that is all over the news. The only thing keeping people from knowing that it's you running out of the ice cream parlor is shoddy camera work. That won't stop video experts from trying to see if they can ID you, given what can be done with raw footage these days."

"Yeah, that's a world of not good. I found it online last night."

"Do you have a plan for how you can deal with the situation? People are going to want to know the identity of the woman in the video and will clean up the picture to put it out there and see if an identity can be found. The big problem is, with you declared dead, I'm fairly certain Lois is going to want to claim your body so she can give you a proper funeral. Lo and behold, there's no body available to her. Unless she's hiding under a rock somewhere she has to have seen the video."

Chloe sighed, laying back down. "Do you see why I don't like being declared dead, Perry? Nothing good has ever come from it!"

"This is no time to throw a fit, Sullivan," Perry growled, and Chloe found it odd that he could do that so well through the phone. "Lane is going to find out you're not dead, be it today or in two months, and she's going to go looking for answers."

"Lois is going to look for answers? Well _that_ doesn't sound like her." Running a hand through her hair, she used her other hand to toss off the bedspread and dropped her feet onto the floor. "My brain is too fuzzy to think of anything right now. Let me take a shower, get some food and call you back."

"Make it a short shower and breakfast, Sullivan."

"Oh, and on the off chance you see Lois, don't tell her I'm alive. We don't know what's going to happen and... well, we just don't know what's going to happen."

"You sure about that?"

"Yeah, I am. I want her to hear it from me that I'm alive, and if she already thinks I'm dead it will _have_ to be me she hears it from. Right now it's best you act the same as the woman you had bring me stuff yesterday. You haven't seen me. You haven't heard from me. Chloe Sullivan is dead."

* * *

><p>Rubbing a cramp out of her forearm, Lois flexed her fingers a few times before putting them back on the keyboard. Starting typing once again, she let the words flow, grammatical errors ignored and misspelled words left to be dealt with later. She would have somebody go back and do some editing later if she couldn't find a copy editor. Right now it was just about getting the words out of her head and onto the page in their unfiltered form. Three paragraphs later she stopped typing again, this time because she found herself at the end of her article. Essay was more like it. She had gone off on the attackers, making sure they knew just how useless they were as human beings and had done her best to build up her city, letting people know that this attack didn't kill Metropolis. She had done her best not to use the old adage that what didn't kill you made you stronger, skirting it instead by saying that a united Metropolis was the best city in the world, and they would prove it by picking themselves up, dusting themselves off and rebuilding. It smacked of cheesy lines she had at first attempted, unsuccessfully, to avoid using, then intending to edit them out later. After having stopped to read what she had written she left them in because they were lines Clark would have loved. They seemed more genuine coming from him.<p>

Closing her eyes, Lois inhaled and exhaled slowly through her nose. She was as exhausted as she had ever felt in her life, but she didn't have time to rest. They had succeeded at getting the paper out, barely, which had allowed her about half an hour without any interruptions before she had started working on the next edition. She didn't want Perry to come in and have to start from scratch, instead wanting to give him a base she would put in place. Covering a yawn with the back of her hand, she checked the time and found that she had been up just under twenty-four hours. No wonder that was the third yawn in about five minutes. She could be up for more than a day without too much problem when she was younger, but now she was almost thirty-seven, and as well as she treated her body age was catching up with her. It was annoying, but physical and emotional exhaustion or not, somebody had to make sure the paper ran smoothly. Once Perry was in she would be able to do the work she needed to, finding out where Clark was and who had killed Chloe. There was a knock on the door, bringing Lois out of her moment of thought. "Come in." The door opened, a sports writer named Todd coming in and sitting down. He didn't say anything, which led Lois to fill the silence. "Comfortable?"

"What?"

"Are you comfortable? Can I get you anything to drink? If you came in to sit and relax I feel we should have drinks."

He frowned at her, sitting forward. "We sat on a big story yesterday, and I didn't bring it up out of deference to your feelings, but we can't wait for you to be comfortable." He looked like he was about to say something but stopped, then moved forward a little more. "There needs to be an article about Superman abandoning the city."

Suddenly Lois was as awake as she'd been in hours. "_Abandoning the city_? Superman didn't _abandon the city_!"

"Then where is he? Why isn't he here helping people? The city is in its most dire hour and he doesn't show? I can understand him not stopping the bombs because all evidence points to that being a meticulously thought out plan, but there are still people trapped out there in the rubble and he's nowhere to be seen! Did something else catch his interest? Did he get tired of helping people? We need to ask these question for the public, Lois, so they know we're still asking the hard questions."

"No."

"That's it?"

"I can add on a little extra: as long as I'm part of this paper there will not be anything, be it an investigative piece or an editorial, that questions Superman. He has never wavered in his defense of this city AND the world, but the first time he isn't here to help us and suddenly we've been abandoned? You're exactly the type of moron the people that bombed the city love."

"_Excuse_ me?"

"You heard me!" she yelled, slapping her palm down on the desk and standing up out of her chair. "You're the kind of stupid where it isn't the body of work that counts, instead having this attitude that says 'What have you done for me lately?' If you aren't getting your gratification now then what the hell does it matter what's been done in the past? I can remember you telling people about how Superman was the greatest hero in the world, trumping Batman, Flash and Wonder Woman without fail. Yet here you are, instead of wondering _why_ he isn't helping, jumping to the conclusion that he no longer cares about the city! Have you even thought about why he isn't helping, or was abandonment less work for your poor excuse for a brain?" Standing up, he met her glare with one of his own. He was a big man, a former athlete that probably had six or seven inches of height on her, not to mention a hundred pounds that appeared to be mostly muscle, but she circled the desk and got right in his face. "If you fight me on this, Todd, I swear I will make sure that you no longer have a job. The_ Daily Planet _is the best in the world and if this is how you think then you damn sure don't deserve to continue working here. You and your turncoat ass can go somewhere else and darken the pages of a newspaper that has to rely on bullshit sensationalism like saying Superman abandoned Metropolis! Now get back to work or leave, and I would _really_ prefer the latter. If I ever hear you bring this up again I will kick your ass, and don't think I would have any trouble doing it."

"When Perry gets back," he said through gritted teeth, "you're not running things anymore and he'll have me writing the article so fast you'll think Superman was giving the order. And you know what? I think your little defense of him confirms what everybody in the city thinks, that you're a whore that tricked your naive, wishy-washy, pathetic excuse for a husband to be a beard so you can fuck Superman. Your kids floating around the house yet?"

"Hey!" The loud interruption was the only thing that stopped Lois from taking out her frustration and anger from the previous two days on Todd, though not by much. She had to unclench her fists, which took a lot of effort. Perry walked into the office, though Lois barely noticed, still doing her best to try and get in the face of the man in front of her. "What the hell is going on in here? If you two are going to come to blows, do it on your own time somewhere that isn't my office! And Todd, if I ever here you say something like that to Lane again, or any other woman, I will fire you and see to it that Superman himself throws you to the sun! Am I understood?"

After a moment of tense silence, Lois never pulling her eyes from his, he finally ground out, "Yes, sir."

Lois kept staring at him as he walked away, seething. Kicking him around the office would have been just the release she needed. Doing her best to put that out of her mind, she took a couple calming breaths and turned to face Perry. "Nice to have you back, Chief."

His response was a grunt and a change of topic. "Where were you? I thought you would have made a beeline for the office as soon as you heard about one bomb going off in the city, let alone twelve."

"I guess you weren't here when the news came in," Lois mumbled. She recapped the past thirty-six hours for him, only leaving out the parts about where Martha and the kids were and how she had acquired large amounts of money, which at this point was feeling like a lot of wasted effort. The money was still in her pocket, being put to no good use.

"Christ, Lane. Who the hell did you piss off and where's Clark?"

"He was in the city when the explosions happened. I haven't heard from him. Same goes for Jimmy. He was doing some shots of the police chief at their headquarters and Lucy hasn't heard from him since the explosions."

"Son of a bitch," he growled, then looked back up at her. "I take it you took over for Ron yesterday when you got here?"

"I was shocked you'd left to cover the conferences instead of having Ron do it."

"We all do what needs to be done in times of crisis, Lane. He's written almost nothing but opinion pieces for three years and as good as he is I wasn't going to have that change on the biggest thing to happen to Metropolis since the arrival of Superman."

The obvious question hung in the air, unasked. Lois sat down, rubbing a hand over her face. "I haven't heard from him, Perry."

"I figured as much. I guess there's nothing we can do but be patient and do our jobs." He stopped and squinted, as if seeing her for the first time. "Did you sleep last night?"

"No. Too much to get done and keep the paper running."

"You did a good job, Lane. You got it out, which is always the main objective. I looked it over and you made good decisions, especially giving Troupe a page to himself. Now I'm here to do the heavy lifting so go use the couch in the conference room, take a four or five hours and rest up. That's not a request. I need you at your best and you look like you're ready to pass out after that little encounter you just had."

That fight had seemed to have sapped what remaining energy she'd had, and now that the adrenaline was no longer coursing through her it felt like a ton of bricks had been dropped on her eyelids. It seemed like everything was catching up with her all at once; drained didn't even begin to describe the feeling. One last thing, though. "I know you've probably heard about it, but just in case, Chloe-"

"I know, and I'm sorry you have to endure that." Perry said quietly, cutting her off before she actually had to say that her cousin was dead. "When the first list of casualties and fatalities came out yesterday that was the big name around here, at least for those that worked here when she did."

"Yeah," she said, sighing. His cell phone started ringing, which she felt was a nice end to the conversation. "I'm gonna go..." She let the sentence trail off into silence, walking away. Running her fingers through her hair, she closed the door to the conference room behind herself and sat down on the couch. Even half asleep she was better than most at digging up information, but this was a special case. She had to be at her best for Chloe, and for Clark, too. Yawning again, she laid down, resting her head on an armrest and fell asleep.

* * *

><p>Finishing off a croissant, Chloe wiped her hands off on a napkin before picking up the phone. The shower hadn't exactly gone as quickly as she had planned, mostly because she'd had a lot of trouble waking up even after having talked to Perry. Breakfast had taken more time than they had said, too, which meant that she was late calling him back. That wasn't going to go over well. Grabbing the phone, she dialed his cell and had to wait a few rings for him to answer. "It's about time you got back to me. Decide to have a four course breakfast or something?"<p>

"Sorry, sorry. Shower and breakfast wasn't supposed to take that long, but it did and that's that."

"Did you at least have any ideas during that time?"

"Nothing feasible, no. If you're talking bad ideas then there are about a hundred options that are on the table." Grabbing an apple off the breakfast tray they'd brought her, she used her shirt to rub it down before taking a quick bite. She continued talking out of the side of her mouth. "The video is killer. Having it be public knowledge that I wasn't actually blown up is just going to send the people that tried to kill me after me _again._"

"You've made it difficult for them to find you, Sullivan."

"Difficult isn't impossible and I need people trying to blow me up again like I need to get shot. I've changed my appearance, I've had a total identity make over... the only other thing I can think to do is flat out disappear, Perry. I don't want to do that. I wouldn't be able to stay away, and if I come back after a month what would I have accomplished?"

"This isn't making a plan, it's moaning and groaning. Unfortunately I don't have anything much better to offer. Look, Lois is here. Let me bring her into the fold. She'll help us work something out so that you aren't being chased when you get recognized."

"Lois is there? You talked to her?"

"I did. She's exhausted, and rightfully so. She was attacked, her house was burned down and she survived pretty much because she's bad at getting killed, despite all the practice. Her name is quickly becoming synonymous with survival in my dictionary."

What the hell? Not only had half the city been blown up, but they'd taken special precaution to try and kill Lois by burning down her house? This was insane. "They burned down the house? Was everybody okay?" she asked, knowing that the children hadn't been there, and that Lois had survived, obviously, but she would have sounded suspicious if she hadn't asked.

"Lois is. Clark... Clark was in the city when the bombs went off. She hasn't heard from him. She also knows about you being on the deceased list, but doesn't seem like she's had time to even consider start mourning you."

So that was the lie Lois was telling everybody to explain his absence. And she knew that she had been declared dead. Everything was going to hell, quickly. "They're targeting my family, Perry, and I have no way to do anything about it right now. Everything is so fresh that there isn't going to be much perspective. People are going to jump to conclusions based solely on what they suspect. I have information on a guy that may have perpetrated the bombings, and I have it from two people, but it's just them speculating. There's nothing concrete." Running her hand through her hair, she put the remainder of the apple down. "I'm going to get in contact with the person that got me my new identity. He might know something. Will you be available later?"

"Yeah, I'll be around. Pretty sure I'll be staying here the next couple nights so call any time."

"Then I'll be in touch. Bye, Perry." Hanging up the phone, she sat there in silence a moment. Where did she go from here? It didn't matter that she had a new name, that she had dyed her hair and was wearing glasses. There wasn't going to be a body that proved she was dead, and that was going to have people looking for her. She wasn't going to be able to do what she needed to do if she was looking over her shoulder all the time to make sure she wasn't being watched. Dialing Wayne Manor, she waited a second for an answer before Alfred picked up in the usual manner. "It's Chloe again, Alfred. Mind putting me through to Bruce?"

"Of course, Ms. Sullivan. Just a moment."

It didn't take long. "Good morning, Chloe. I thought I might be hearing from you."

"Morning, Bruce. Have you seen the video?"

"I have. For somebody that's been declared dead but isn't it's an unfortunate piece of video. It was going to be difficult anyway, but when people thought you had been blown up there was an excuse for there being no body. I'm just surprised that people who thought this whole thing out so well didn't think to give your bomber backup to make sure you didn't get away."

"The first thing to work in my favor in days," Chloe muttered. "Do you have any ideas on what I can do, Bruce? I want to be here, figuring out who it was that tried to hard to see me dead, but I'm going to be looking over my shoulder every two minutes. That's no way to live and the moment I get complacent is when I get shot in the back."

"I think you need to leave Metropolis." Closing her eyes, she silently cursed. She had been afraid he would say that because she knew it was probably the best plan. "You need to be away from everything, make yourself a footnote in the bombing. If you disappear even those trying to find you will eventually stop looking. Come to Gotham. You already have a job at the _Gazette_."

"Bruce, I can't leave Metropolis. I'd be back within a month, six weeks at the most. I wouldn't be able to keep myself away, to keep not telling Lois that I'm alive. I want to tell her as it is. I feel like, with everything that's going on, she deserves to know I'm alive."

"Don't tell Lois or anybody else you're still alive." Too late for that. Chloe was going to have to contact Perry and tell him to forget that he ever spoke to her. Again. She hated making him lie to Lois, but if it was for the best, if it kept her and her family safe, it was worth it. "This only works if you're well and truly gone. Come to Gotham. I think... I need to speak to somebody but there should be something we can do that will keep you from going back to Metropolis."

"You want me to drive to Gotham? I've never driven that far at once, ever. Not even as a kid on a vacation."

"You have five million dollars at your disposal, Chloe. Be creative. I bet that will get you here a lot more quickly than driving."

Hanging up the now dead line, Chloe stared at the phone a moment. Some help that was. She had forgotten about the money, though. Be creative, he said. Picking up the room phone, she dialed the front desk. "Yes, hi, this is Vicki Vale in the executive suite. Who do I need to contact about having my clothes sent somewhere?" Thinking for a second, she decided to add to that statement. "And my car?"

* * *

><p>Standing in the middle of his cell, Clark x-rayed the ceiling again. He couldn't see the <em>Daily Planet<em> building from where he was, unfortunately, because he would have bet his life that Lois would be there, trying to find him and break the story all at once. Hopefully the kids were somewhere safe, playing and not even aware of the terrible things going on. He thought he had seen Chloe once but the woman had been wearing glasses and had dark hair while driving a very expensive looking car. That had been the whole reason she had stood out; barely any cars had gone by. Frowning, he decided he had waited long enough. The room was big enough that he could only feel the barest of effects from the kryptonite lining the walls. It was time to see just exactly how they planned to stop him from escaping. Looking up at the ceiling again, he focused his eyes and was about to blast it with his heat vision when the sprinklers turned on. Water started hitting him and sickness washed over, his legs going out from under him, pain washing over him more and more as the sprinklers kept running. They stopped a minute later but the pain wouldn't. A voice boomed through the room as he writhed around on the ground..

"I told you we would stop you. That time we were nice. That was water mixed with kryptonite. Next time it will be pure kryptonite. You'd best start taking us seriously."

Gritting his teeth, Clark started using his hands to try and dry himself off, hoping that the kryptonite wouldn't seep into his suit and dry into it. They had been true to their word; they were going to be creative in applying his weakness to him. He was going to have to be creative in finding a way out.


	11. Chapter 11

- Chapter 11

Splashing water on her face, Lois avoided looking into the mirror, shaking the excess water off her hands before taking some paper towels and drying them off properly before patting her face dry. Smoothing the wrinkles out of her skirt, she walked out of the bathroom and back into the bullpen, striding across the room until she reached her desk. People thought she was weak now, that she couldn't do her job as well anymore because it was just her. Every time she put out an article she proved them wrong, but it never seemed to stop them from talking. Rubbing at the corners of her eyes with one hand and the back of her neck with the other, she did her best to clear her thoughts and focus on the task at hand. It wasn't as easy as it had been, the words not coming as naturally as she had gotten used to. It had felt like working an atrophied muscle. She had blamed the stress when Perry had asked her about it, but they both knew the real reason and he'd had enough sense not to bring it up. He must have heard what she had said to the last person to make the suggestion.

Opening her desk drawer, she pulled out a picture that had been stashed there for two months. The day after Jimmy had taken it at a family gathering at the Kent farm it had taken what she had thought would be permanent residence on her desk. Now... now it was what she went to when she needed a fix, too painful to keep on her desk all the time. A candid photo of Clark on the floor, his back resting against the couch, reading the paper with Jacob and Cassidy draped all over him, was the closest thing to perfection in photographic form she could think of. She had never been able to figure out how he had managed to read with them like that, but that was why he was Clark. Grinding her teeth together, she stuffed the picture back in the drawer and slammed it shut, drawing the eyes of a few coworkers that were near her open door. She stared one down until he walked away, and the others seemed to have followed suit. She unclenched a fist she hadn't been aware was clenched, falling into the habit of cracking the knuckle of her thumb too try and loosen the tension in her fingers.

God, she was getting nowhere. Her deadline wasn't for another day but she wanted the article done and out of the way so she had some free time to get back to her own investigations. Perry indulged her in that, giving her more time between assigned articles so that she could continue to do what so few other people in the city had the guts to do. They all jumped to the conclusion that they had been abandoned, and that was how essentially every media outlet in Metropolis save the Planet was playing it now. It had been an all out media blitz starting two days after the bombings. There was somebody behind the blitz. There had to be. With all the goodwill that Superman had built in the city, all the hope he'd engendered, the whole city shouldn't have turned on him so quickly. What the hell was the point of Superman if the people were so ready to cast him aside? She understood some of the anger; when somebody that has been there in your hour of need for years suddenly disappears, you feel abandoned. But the reaction and the venom in that reaction was so immediate! It was part of a bigger plan. It had to be. Perry trusted her hunch and was letting her run with it. If she could just get one person to confirm her suspicions, the whole thing would open up. She could _feel_ it.

She had to do this for him, too. All the time he'd spent helping people couldn't be for nothing. She wouldn't let the people of Metropolis cast aside all his good deeds like they were fresh garbage. She knew that he didn't do it for the praise, that he did it because it was the right thing to do, but she wasn't as a good a person as he was. She was going to make the people remember what Superman had meant to them, what he'd done and sacrificed for them. She couldn't even share how much he had sacrificed for them, how much time he missed with his wife and children helping people in Metropolis and around the world. She would remind them of every single thing she could, though. He _was_ going to come home to a hero's welcome. He _was_ going to come home to the fanfare he deserved. He was going to come _home_.

Setting her fingers on the keyboard in front of her, Lois got about a paragraph typed out before her phone rang. Picking it up without looking, she stuffed it between her ear and shoulder so her hand would be free to keep typing. "This is Lane."

"It's Perry. I'm in a meeting with the board and they want to talk to you, too. Be up here in five."

"Chief, I just got going. I'm sure they can wait until I finish my article."

"Be here, Lois."

Rolling her eyes and putting down the phone, she didn't bother writing anything further, instead getting up and walking to the elevator. Punching the up button, she only had to wait a moment for one to arrive, stepping inside and hitting the button for the top floor. The board members probably just wanted to bitch and moan at them about the falling sales numbers, maybe even say some threatening words so that they could feel like they had done something. Hardly the first time it had happened, though it was rare they wanted her there for it. Usually it was just Perry. Stretching her arms back behind her body, Lois walked out of the elevator and towards the boardroom, not bothering to knock on the door before she walked in. She found Perry sitting across from the board members, with Ron sitting next to him. Nobody appeared to be happy that they were there. "Wow, I think I just walked into the happiest place in Metropolis. What's going on?"

"Have a seat, Mrs. Kent." Raising an eyebrow, she did just that, sitting next to Perry. In front of her, the board members all stared at them. She had given each a nickname in her dealings with them, and she gave each a withering glance currently. Old, Stuffy, Up Tight, Old & Stuffy, Old & Annoying and Guy That Needed To Get Laid all avoided her gaze, and the last was the one who spoke to them. "We're here today because there has been a precipitous decline in sales and an alarming climb in subscription cancellations over the past two months, and we need to correct this. You three have been the strongest voices for the paper, in your own unique ways, essentially being the people the paper has come to be known for. Unfortunately, since the attacks, you've taken the paper in a direction the neither we nor the readers agree with. As a result, we're terminating your employment with the _Daily Planet_, effective immediately. You'll be allowed to collect your belongings and be escorted out of the office by security. We appreciate all the good work you've done for the paper."

Snapping out of her shock after a second, Lois got up out of her chair. "Fuck this," she said. "You dumbasses want into the 'We Hate Superman' game then go right ahead. All he did was spend day after day sacrificing his time and safety to keep the people of this city safe, so to hell with him if he dares disappear, reasons for being gone be damned!"

"Lois, all that anger isn't..."

"No, Perry." She turned to face him but pointed at the board members as he stood up. "They can fire me for any number of reasons, like being too much of a safety liability or my writing having fallen off in quality since the attacks, but getting fired because I support Superman?" She turned and marched up to the table where the board was sitting. "You think you're losing readers now? Just wait until this mass insanity passes and you have to be an actual newspaper again. You will be _fucked_ without Perry and are going to have the credibility of a gossip rag. I'm going to be waiting for the day when the _Daily Planet _files for bankruptcy and has to close its doors. Then when the history of journalism is told, it can be a cautious tale for students that want to get into this profession." Lois walked away and was about to leave the room but stopped, turning around to face them again. For two months she had wanted to lash out, and considering she was already fired this was a perfect opportunity. "I hope each and every one of you gets mugged, your cars stolen right out from under you. Then I hope you get home one night and you find your houses being robbed. Maybe then, in those times when you look up to the sky and want to call for Superman to help you stop what's happening, you'll realize just how very, _very_ stupid you all are."

* * *

><p>Turning off the pavement onto the long dirt driveway, Lois slowed the car down and pulled up to the yellow farmhouse she loved so much. It hadn't taken her very long to gather her things at the office, needing only her purse and the pictures around the office. After having erased her hard drive to make sure nobody in the office made use of her information, she had left, exchanging quick goodbyes with Perry, Ron and a few others before going to the hotel she had been staying in four nights a week. She had packed all her clothes and her laptop, then checked out. She wished things were different at the <em>Planet<em>, but she'd had enough of Metropolis. Everything that she had loved about the city was gone. No longer did it have a shine to it. No longer did the people seem to be friendly. Before Superman they must have been that way through sheer force of will, and with Superman there it had been easy for them to be upbeat. But without him and after the attacks everything about the city had changed. She'd done everything she could think of in her writing to remind people of what Metropolis was, but with little effect.

Parking the car in front of the barn, Lois got out, stretching her legs after the drive. With every year that passed her legs got a little bit more stiff during and after the drive from Metropolis to Smallville and vice versa. Not bothering to grab her duffle full of clothes out of the trunk, she pulled her laptop bag out of the passenger seat before walking into the house. She was greeted with the murmur of voices on the other side of the house. Dropping her bag on the kitchen table, she made her way to the living room, where she found Jacob, Cass and Martha all sitting down on the floor. "Hi, guys!" she said in an overly cheery voice, three heads turning to see her. It wouldn't be a good thing for Jacob and Cass to see how very annoyed she was at Metropolis and Life in general.

"Mama!" Cassidy scrambled up as quickly as she could and ran over to her, Lois picking her up and hugging her.

"Hey, Cass. I missed you so much." She kissed the girl's cheek and hugged her a little tighter before looking over to Jacob. "Why aren't you at preschool?"

"It's a teacher work day so I got to stay home with Cassidy and be with Grandma. We've been reading stories all morning, right Grandma?"

"We have, and it's been a lot of fun," Martha said as she got up off the floor slowly, smiling. "Weren't you supposed to get here tomorrow night?"

"Yeah, but I finished my piece and decided I'd come home early."

"Really? Because lately you've been using an extra day like tomorrow almost exclusively for research into other things. What's going on?"

Lois sighed, adjusting Cass so she was on her hip instead of pressing into the front of her body. She hadn't gotten anything by Martha in a long time, and it didn't surprise she wasn't getting something by her now. "The _Daily Planet_ board of directors decided it wanted the paper to go in a different direction than where it's position on the disappearance of Superman has taken it. As such, I, along with Perry, Ron Troupe and probably no small number of other people, no longer work there. The last bastion of sanity in Metropolis has fallen."

"Oh, Lois. I'm so sorry, honey. Is there anything I can do?"

Shaking her head, she gently ran a hand through Cassidy's hair, soothing her little girl and reveling in the softness at the same time. "No, but thank you. Right now I want to spend some time with the kiddos. Don't get me wrong, I think it's inevitable that I'm going to have a good cry over this. Probably no avoiding it. I don't even think it's really hit me yet. I laid into the board when they told Ron, Perry and I that they were firing us because we wouldn't turn the _Planet_ into a cheap knock-off of what a newspaper should be. I was so angry that I just lost it, and yeah, I know my blood pressure is a little higher than is preferable, but I got it out of my system. I think with the stress of not knowing where Clark is for the past two months, of watching a city descend into instability and teeter on the edge of xenophobia with the new initiative brewing about barring any sort of action they deem vigilantism, of knowing what's to come without Clark being here for it... I lost my temper." Lois shrugged and smiled sadly. "After being fired, it was a bridge I didn't mind burning."

"I know it's probably too soon to ask this, but are you going to try and get another job in Metropolis and keep fighting?"

"Metropolis?" Lois barely had to consider the question. "No. My city is lost. Instead of picking itself back up it's becoming everything that it wasn't and shouldn't be. I fought against that happening the best way I know how, short of fighting crime myself, which I may have seriously considered when I was younger, but here I am." She shrugged and let Cassidy down as she squirmed, watching her run to join Jacob. "Metropolis isn't my city anymore, Martha. I wish I could say I wasn't giving up, but I'm tired of fighting for a city that doesn't want me to fight for it. I have other priorities."

* * *

><p>Hands in her pockets, Lois walked up the barn stairs into the loft, moving through it slowly and stopping once she got to the window. She looked out into the night, watching a breeze move across the tops of the tress she could see by moonlight before she looked up, eyes resting on the stars as she allowed herself to truly relax for the first time since the attacks. She hadn't been sure she would ever be able to relax again, especially in the immediate aftermath of their house being destroyed, but after what had happened with her job and leaving Metropolis... it almost felt like she could leave that stress behind and focus on the future. Pulling in a deep breath, she enjoyed the fresh air that she hadn't been getting as much of as she had when she was younger. She had taken it for granted back then, when living in Smallville had still been a novelty. Now it was one of the things she treasured most about being in Smallville, because it had been something Clark had loved so much.<p>

As she pulled in another deep breath a breeze kicked up and wafted through the barn, bringing a strong whiff of farm animals and manure with it. Suddenly her stomach turned and she had to lean of over the ledge, getting her head outside of the barn as she threw up. It didn't last long, Lois trying to spit the bad taste out of her mouth before she pulled her head back inside, wiping her mouth off on her sleeve. "I've felt that coming since I got here Thursday," she mumbled, resting a hip against the barn wall next to the window. "You've gone pretty easy on me until now, but you're going to have to get used to the smells of animals and their byproducts and stop making me sick to that smell, or else this whole living in Smallville thing isn't going to work out very well."

Walking to the ragged old couch, she sat down, finding herself staring at a picture of them from their wedding. Pulling her hair back out of her eyes, she rested her chin on a fist. "I wish you were here, Clark. I wish so much that you were here for Jacob and Cassidy. They know you're gone, and they believe me when I say that you're out helping people, but that isn't something I can keep telling them. I don't know how to be a mom without you there as the dad. Your mom is helping me, but I can't rely on her forever, no matter how easy it would be. She'd never accept that it's not fair to her, that she should continue to have a life outside of me and the kids. At some point we'll leave the farm, and that's when I'm afraid I might lose my way. The reason I've never lost my way with Jacob and Cassidy is because I had you there.

"And now... I don't even know how it happened. It had to have been the night before the bombings, or maybe a couple days before that because those are the last times I remember us having sex before the world turned sideways. You used a condom both times, though, and I'm pretty sure you'd have told me if one had broken, which means either you didn't notice or were planning on knocking me up, because I'm extremely pregnant." Groaning, she rubbed at her face until it got uncomfortable. She had told a couple people she was pregnant, but this was the first time she'd said it out loud to Clark. She liked to talk to him like this, because wherever he was, maybe he was listening in on her, and if he was she wanted him to know what was going on. And what was going on was a _huge_ event in their lives that he should be there for.

"I've never told anybody about this, but I went to see Jor-El once without you, because I thought he'd be able to give me some answers on genetic differences between humans and kryptonians, and if there was a possibility of cross pollination. When Jor-El told me that the chances of us conceiving, based simply on genetics, were between one and three percent, I was seriously doubtful we'd ever have biological children. I knew that was something you at least wanted to try, which was the whole reason I went to the Fortress. Then when he told me that it was unlikely I'd be able to carry a half-kryptonian baby to term I was sure we'd never have one. Then four months later I'm pregnant with Jacob and it wasn't all that difficult of a pregnancy. And then it happened _again_ with Cassidy, coincidentally after four months of trying without really trying. And that leads me to this point: if one of us was trying to have a third baby, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't trying to, then you are _much_ sneakier than I give you credit for.

"That said, I need you to be here for this. I've never done this alone, and if my memories of being pregnant with Jacob and Cassidy are good indications, you kept me sane when I would have a hard time. I've established these nine months as the time in my life when I don't mind having somebody to lean on. And on a totally shallow note, you always made me feel a lot more sexy than I actually was when pregnant, which really made me feel better about a few things. I need you here despite the fact that I was almost morning sickness free until now!" Yeah, because _that_ was why she needed him. Of the million or so reasons she hoped he'd come home, she really wanted him there to hold her hair back when she threw up. Lois couldn't stop from rolling her eyes at herself. "I'm about nine or ten weeks pregnant. There's the big shocker for the evening, though at this point in my life I'm barely able to call anything shocking.

"In other news, Perry and I, among others, got fired from the _Planet_ three days ago. I've told you this before, but the whole city has gone nuts and turned into an army of Lex Luthors, seemingly doubting you ever had any good intentions now that you weren't there in the aftermath of the bombings. I can't figure out how to fix it and I'm tired of trying. Maybe I just need a mental break, but fighting a losing battle is like banging your head up against a brick wall to try and break it down. It's really, _really_ annoying, and it hurts like hell. I don't know how you did it, with the never ending stream of criminals basically asking you to catch them, never seeing an end to it. I wish I had your patience, but I'm only a Kent by marriage. I guess patience isn't an STD like I had hoped because I've given up my Metropolis residency for the small town life."

Sitting down on the couch, she twisted and stretched her back a little bit, resting her arms on her legs and shaking her head. "For crying out loud, Smallville, look what you've done to me!" she cried out. "I'm living on a farm, working on popping out our third kid and you're not even here for it! How the hell did this happen?" Dropping her head so that her forehead was resting on her thumbs, Lois couldn't decide if she wanted to laugh or cry about the situation in which she had found herself. "I don't know what's going to happen, what's going to come my way now that I no longer work at the_ Daily Planet_, but in the foreseeable future I can't see myself taking the kids and leaving Smallville. They already don't have you around, Clark, so why would I take them away from Martha? Plus, Jimmy is still recovering in Metropolis, so that means he, Lucy and Bridget won't be leaving the city anytime soon. The majority of my family is within driving distance, and I don't want to lose that."

Laying down on the couch, she stared up at the ceiling. "I don't really have anything else to report right now so I'll let you go for the night." Suddenly she felt tears forming, and the cry she'd known was coming seemed to be arriving. She hated the hormones more than she hated morning sickness. They made her moments of weakness obvious for the world to see. "I love you, Smallville. Don't ever forget that, no matter what. Come home and I'll show you just how much. Please, come home. I don't have you, I don't have the _Planet_... two of the pillars of my life have crumbled, and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to rebuild without them. Forget the _Planet_, though. The only pillar I need to rebuild my life is you." Lois grabbed the picture and held it close to her body, curling up into a ball around the picture as she lost herself in memories of Clark.

* * *

><p>Lois pulled some hair out from in front of her face and tucked it back behind her ear, smiling as she did so. "My husband is originally from here, I spent a good chunk of my early twenties here, my mother-in-law still lives here when she isn't out of town for a charity function, and because I still have family in Metropolis I don't want to be too far away. To top it all off, I've grown attached to Smallville over the years, so I think this is the best place for me to be, assuming you'll have me."<p>

"Assuming I'll have you?" the man across the desk from her asked, wide eyed. The name plate on the desk said his name was Charles Quinn, but he'd asked her to call him Charlie. "You're Lois Lane. Everybody with any sense knows the _Daily Planet_ lost its mind when they fired half the staff, mostly because they got rid of you, Perry White and Ron Troupe. Any newspaper in the United States would sacrifice a goat to have you work for them, and quite frankly my publisher would sacrifice _me_ if it meant having you work here. Of course I'll have you, but to be blunt, the Smallville_ Ledger_ is small potatoes in comparison to what you're used to and where you could be. Considering the nature of newspapers now you'd still be accessible to everybody, but I doubt the stories will be there and we wouldn't be able to pay you anywhere near what you'd be able to get elsewhere."

"In the spirit of honesty, Charlie, I wouldn't be working exclusively for the _Ledger_. I would like to work here, but it's not about making money so much as it is having access to health insurance for myself, my two children and the one I have currently gestating. After he was fired from the _Daily Planet_, Perry White decided to put together a weekly news journal. I would be doing an investigative piece every once a month for him, but should you hire me I would obviously be doing that on my own time. That won't be up and running for at couple months, which is why I come to you, hat in hand." Perry had offered her the gig as soon as he had put it together, and she'd said yes before he had finished speaking. She would follow Perry to a paper in Borneo, if need be. It was a great opportunity not only to keep working with one of her favorite people, but to be able to do the kind of work she loved doing without having to go to a major paper in another city. She would be able to work from home, communicating with him in whatever way was easiest at the time and simply emailing her articles to him.

Charlie shrugged, and sat forward in his chair until he was leaning on his desk. "I have no problem with any of that, Mrs. Kent. We're probably a lot more laid back here than what you were used to at the_ Daily Planet_. Nobody around here gets any more dressed up than a nice golf shirt, with most not bothering with even that much. But that doesn't mean we don't do good work. Far from it. We're an excellent paper; it's just that we know that we're a small paper. We take our jobs seriously, but you don't find quite the same... oh, screw it. I'm talking in circles and have no idea what I'm saying at this point. We should be able to work it out that you come into the office three times a week but are still full time. That way you'll be insured but still have plenty of time to spend with your children. Your husband being a local boy and all, not to mention a former senator's son, I know that it's just you right now. I wish you the best in trying to find him."

"Thank you, Charlie. And please, call me Lois. If I'm going to be working here, I'm sure you'll be bellowing at me at some point, and it's much simpler to bellow Lois than it is Mrs. Kent."

"Sounds like a plan," Charlie said, smiling. "Welcome to the Smallville_ Ledger_, Lois."

* * *

><p>"Jacob, your shoes and coat are by the door so put them on when you're done brushing your teeth," Lois called back towards the other end of the apartment from her room, dry swallowing one of her prenatal vitamins before doing the same with her second. Checking her purse, she found keys, wallet and phone already in it, which was a rare event. Often one of the three was somewhere that was both difficult to find and almost inexplicable. The consistency of the inexplicableness would have been amusing if it weren't so frustrating. Pulling her jacket off the doorknob, she exited her bedroom and tossed it on the back of the couch as she walked into the kitchen and pulled Jacob's lunch box down from the top of the fridge. Grabbing the turkey sandwich she had made the previous night, she placed it in the lunch box before walking to the pantry and pulling out a bag of chips. To appease the nutrition gods she put in two little boxes of raisins she was sure he wouldn't eat, considering he was her son through and through and she <em>still<em> liked to ditch raisins. After putting some chips in a little bag, she tossed in an oatmeal creme pie so she wouldn't be disowned for making a mediocre lunch.

Peeking her head out of the kitchen before starting on making a lunch for herself, she spotted Cassidy where she'd left her, ensconced in an educational cartoon that Lois figured was in actuality brainless, but better than something that didn't even try to act useful. "How's the show, Cass?"

"Good, mommy."

Nodding, Lois went back to making her own lunch, throwing a couple roast beef sandwiches in a paper bag before stuffing in some celery sticks, carrots, and an apple. Every time she was pregnant she felt like she became a herbivore with as many fruits and vegetables she made herself put down every meal. Well, almost every meal. She knew to eat healthy, and did so to a higher degree because of the special nature of her pregnancy, but she liked to splurge every now and again. Thinking about it a second, Lois went ahead and threw in a couple oatmeal creme pies to her lunch. No need to have to disown herself for making a mediocre lunch, either.

Putting some bread in the toaster, she pushed the lever down and pulled out the butter and some strawberry jelly, setting both on the counter as Jacob walked into the kitchen. "Do you know where my shoes are?"

"Next to the door with your coat, as I said mere moments ago. Put them on, please, because we're leaving as soon as I eat my toast. Do you have your backpack?"

"You put it on the coffee table."

"Right, good." She did twelve things every morning, and these days she always seemed to forget that she'd already done one of them. The morning where she had made Jacob three sandwiches after putting the one she'd made the night before in her own lunch bag had been especially ridiculous. "Make sure everything is in it for me after you put your shoes on, ok?" He nodded and went to put on his shoes, she hoped, considering his tendency towards distraction. Moving to put bread into the toaster, it popped up with toast already in it. It was like she could predict she was going to do that. Taking out the toast, she put in the other two slices so she could stay full for more than an hour and quickly downed the first two slices. Pregnancy eating for her was like doing magic: one second the food was there, the next it wasn't. Meals that were both more and less satisfying at the same time had confused the hell out of her the first time around. In the middle of her third go around it felt like old hat.

What wasn't old hat was the knock at the door. Frowning as she held a piece of toast in her mouth, Lois walked to the door and checked to see who was outside. Surprised at who she saw, the first thing that ran through her mind was that they had found his body. No, there would've been more than just Ollie in that case. Could they have found him alive? No, they would have called the moment they found him. Whatever it was, she wasn't going to get any answers without opening the door. She opened it as she pulled the toast out of her mouth. "Ollie, hi. Uh... anything on Clark?" She was amazed she'd been able to play it co cool.

He smiled sadly "No, there hasn't been anything... new..." He trailed off as his eyes dropped to her midsection, and she rolled her eyes as she watched his widen.

"For a guy that does what you do, your poker face is awful. Come in." He walked inside past her, though it took him a second to tear his eyes away from her stomach. "I'd tell you to make yourself at home, but we're leaving as soon as I eat the piece of toast that was paired with this one," she said, holding up the one in hand. "I need to get Jacob to school and Cass to the farm."

"Is there a loop I was left out of that knew about you being pregnant?"

"We can discuss it later. The children have places to be and I intend to get them there in a timely fashion."

"Oh, no, don't worry about that. Dinah's out with the driver right now and would be happy to take them to wherever they need to go."

"You're both here? Why didn't she come in?"

"We've been in Metropolis the past couple days to see how the cleanup was looking since the city effectively barred the Justice League from rendering any assistance. And seriously, would you two suddenly have gotten along like old friends that had known each other for over ten years?"

"We could be civil... probably. I'm sure we've done it before. If nothing else, I try not to fight too much in front of my children." Shrugging, Lois conceded the point as she walked into the kitchen to get the now cold piece of toast. Taking a bite, she put the butter away before walking out and grabbing Cassidy's coat. "All right boy and girl, Aunt Dinah is going to be taking you to school and Grandma's, respectively. Jacob, coat on." Helping Cassidy into hers, she zipped it up and took her hand, leading them both out to the limo. The driver came around and opened the door for them, and she half smiled at Dinah as she helped Cassidy inside. "Morning, Dinah."

"Morning, Lois. How are you-" She cut herself off and raised an eyebrow. "I see that congratulations are in order."

"And Ollie says that we don't get along. We're up to being able to exchange pleasantries after all these years! Thank you for the congratulations and taking my brood to where they need to be," she said as Jacob scrambled past her to get inside. He was going to be the envy of all his friends at school, or at least the ones that could understand what a limo was. "I'm going to fill him in and then I'm sure he'll tell you every detail."

"You're welcome on both accounts, and yes, he will."

Nodding, Lois smiled and blew a kiss to both kids. "Bye, guys. I'll see you this afternoon. Love you both."

After a chorus of goodbyes and the door being shut, Lois led Ollie back into the apartment, closing the door after he'd walked inside. "All right, let the interview begin. Ask whatever questions you want." His response was a smirk as they sat down, not actually saying anything and leaving Lois to dive right into the details. "I'm around twenty-five or twenty-six weeks along. The only people that I've told are Martha, Lucy and Jimmy, my dad, Perry and my editor at the _Ledger_, though I hope most of my coworkers have also figured it out by now. And Clark, of course, assuming he's out there somewhere listening. With him missing I knew that everybody in the League would make a huge deal out of this baby because you're all good people that tend to overdo on the helping. The only person I've ever let dote on me is Clark, and I'm not going to break that habit now."

"So it is, you know... Clark's?" Ollie asked.

"Of course this is Clark's baby! What the hell is wrong with you?"

He raised his hands defensively. "Well, it's just that you not telling people and him having been missing for a while now it's... well, it's hard to conceive a baby when your husband's been missing for months on end."

"Christ, it's nice to know what you think of me, Ollie," she said. It wasn't an entirely illogical leap for him to make, except for the whole her having sex with somebody not named Clark Kent. That was an outright offensive suggestion. "I wasn't hiding that I was pregnant, all right? It's not like I never left the apartment to keep it hidden. It just is what it is and I didn't want it to become something else because of the situation. I'm treating this pregnancy exactly the same way I did the last two. This baby gets special treatment because he or she is special to me, my friends and family, not because Clark is missing."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's just a shock. Usually we're face to face more than once every four months or so, which would have allowed for more knowledge on the subject. But yeah, congratulations. Are you healthy? Have there been any problems? Complications?"

"Nothing that didn't happen during the last two pregnancies, though I'm larger this time than I was with the other two. I was actually going to go and have a checkup today to make sure that everything is progressing as it should be."

"Who checks that and how do they know what's supposed to be happening in your specific type of pregnancy?"

"Jor-El, and I have no idea how he knows what's normal. He engulfs me in light for about five minutes and tells me about the progression of the pregnancy and about what minerals I'm running low on."

"Wow," he said, looking surprised. "That's certainly a step up from getting an ultrasound and having blood drawn."

"I agree. It also takes all the waiting time out of things, which makes me happy. You know how patience and I have a love/hate relationship, so anything that doesn't require me to be patient while working in my favor is always a plus." Standing up, she dug a thumb into her back for a second before walking into the kitchen. "You want anything to drink, Ollie?"

"No, thanks. I'm fine."

Filling a glass with water, she took a sip as she sat down on the couch again. The baby kicked a couple times and she used her free hand to pat the spot gently, the same way Clark had always liked to do during her first two pregnancies, the same way that had always made her roll her eyes and smile at his want to reassure the baby they knew it was there. She'd always argued that if the baby didn't think she was paying attention, it obviously wasn't paying enough attention to her, as she had been intimately aware of each baby inside her. "Considering you had no idea I was pregnant, I'm assuming that you didn't come here to discuss my impending third child. You said that you were in Metropolis to see how the cleanup was looking?"

He nodded, relaxing back a little bit from the tense way he'd been sitting. "All things considered, there's hardly a better way for me to get a first hand view of what's going on in the city. With the donations made and local business interests of Queen Industries, sharing the name and being CEO means I can get tours of the rebuilding effort without much trouble."

"How does everything look?"

"A lot better than it did even a month or two ago. With all the money the state has pumped in to get it's economic hub moving again, not to mention the federal money that came in, they've been able to hire all the people necessary, plus some, to push the rebuilding effort to a pace just short of frantic. They've taken every step possible to minimize recovery time, _especially_ since they turned down the League offer to help rebuild and the ballot initiative that outlawed, and I quote, 'any form of action or vigilantism by human, metahuman or extra terrestrial that seeks to take the place of established law enforcement, emergency medical or fire personnel in the apprehension of criminal suspects, treatment of victims or evaluation of a crime scene.'"

"They may as well have called it the 'Fuck you, Superman' law," Lois said bitterly. "It's not even worded well! They were in such a hurry to put something in the books that would make it illegal for anyone from the League to do anything in the city that they essentially made it illegal to try and help somebody. By the logic and wording used they would be able to arrest a man that ran into a burning building to help get people out because he was interfering with firefighters _and_ a potential crime scene!"

"Considering the polarizing nature of something like that, even with the fervor that had taken the city, it only passed with fifty-nine percent of the vote. I had expected it to be much, much worse, maybe even near seventy percent."

Lois took a long drink of water, frowning into her empty glass. "Passing is passing."

"True. Anyway, being annoyed by that rule is also not the reason I came by. I know that you're aware of this, but today is the six month anniversary of the bombings." Today was the six month anniversary? Jesus, Lois had been so busy that she sometimes had a hard time keeping track of what day it was. "In its rules, the Justice League established that an active, fully resourced search for a missing member will be scaled back to a secondary priority at six months. Because it's Superman, a vote was taken among the founders on whether or not to waive the rule in this instance. It was decided-"

Lois held up a hand to stop him and cut him off. "No. Don't waive the rule." Everything in her screamed the opposite, wanting to tell him to pour every resource at their disposal into finding either Clark or what had happened to him if the worst was confirmed. Her stomach turned at the thought of that. "He wouldn't want to be treated any differently than any other member of the League. You know how much equality meant... means to him."

Ollie nodded, placing a hand on her shoulder and giving her what she thought was a reassuring squeeze. He'd never been half as good at reading her as Clark was, but she knew it was obvious that her inner turmoil wasn't hidden very well. "We all felt the same way. The vote was unanimous to stick to the rules. As of today, all but two of the analysts will be put on different projects and searches of the area where he disappeared will be scaled back to satellite scans. Those searches have probably been redundant for months, anyway."

"Good," Lois said. "Well, not good. Bad. He's still missing." Sighing, Lois rubbed at a traitorous eye, making sure that no tears got out. "But he'll come back. I believe that he'll be back. It's not like he doesn't have incentive, and I have a really good surprise for him, so he has to come back."

* * *

><p>Pulling off her gloves, Lois stuffed them into a pocket as she used her other hand to unzip her coat. The warmth radiating through the Fortress made the coat and gloves unnecessary once she got it started, though it was still very cold whenever she arrived. The perils of going to the arctic. Fortunately it was January, so it wasn't like when she'd had to deck herself out in winter gear in the middle of summer. That always sucked, forcing her to have to shower when getting home after sweating like she had just gone on a 3 hour run. "Hey, Jor-El. It's Lois," she called out into the huge space, putting her coat down as she did so.<p>

"Hello, Lois Lane Kent."

"Morning. I'm pregnant again, twenty-five or twenty-six weeks along, and just wanted to have you scan me so I could be sure everything is going as it should be. I'm larger than I was with either Jacob or Cassidy, but I assume that could just be because my uterus is so easily stretchable at this point that the baby can grow as quickly as it wants and I'll be able to accommodate it, uncomfortable as it may be." Sighing, she remembered something she'd put out of her mind weeks ago, a family history Lucy had reminded her of as Lois had complained to her about how big she had gotten and how quickly she had needed maternity clothes. "Here's a scary thought: check and see if it's twins, will you?"

"Place yourself upon the table, Lois Lane Kent."

Doing as instructed, Lois hefted herself onto the usual spot, not realizing just how high it actually was; every time she'd gone through this before Clark had helped her up. That had always made it seem easy. With some fidgeting and scooting, she got up on the table, though she had to adjust her clothes so they weren't scrunched and wedged in uncomfortable places. Laying down, she closed her eyes and a second later felt the warmth of the light engulf her.

Everything about doing this without Clark was new to her, and she hated every bit of it. Family was everything to him, the same as it was for her. Nothing in the world was more important, nothing carried so much weight in life as taking care of her family. Right now all of her new family related weight was making lying on her back uncomfortable, but she'd never really established if she was allowed to move during these scan things so she stayed still. It didn't help that Jor-El seemed to be taking his sweet time with the scan. Maybe it was the fact that she usually had Clark to talk to while doing this that made the time go by more quickly. This was more along the lines of waiting in the doctor's office for her to finally get to the room, which she'd always felt was worse than the waiting room. At least you know it could be a while in the waiting room. Once you're taken back one assumes that it won't take twenty minutes for the doctor to get there, but Lois had been disabused of that assumption countless times over the years.

Finally the light turned off and she opened her eyes, rolling onto her side and sitting up. Shifting a little bit, she dug her knuckles into a spot in her back where the muscles had knotted, trying to loosen them enough so that she didn't have to take a painkiller before going to pick up Jacob from school and Cass from the farm. "So, am I healthy as a horse, Jor-El? Not that you're aware of why I would ask that or what the phrase means," she continued, more quietly and to herself. Did he even know what a horse was? That was something she'd have to ask Clark when he finally got home.

"You are healthy, Lois Lane Kent. Your mineral levels are satisfactory. You were correct in your assessment of twenty-five weeks gestation. The child is thriving."

"So it is just one? Good, that's probably for the best. You know exactly what a mother wants to hear, Jor-El." Hopping down off the table, she straightened out her clothes before picking up her coat. "You wouldn't happen to know why I'm so big this time, would you?"

"Does not fetal development differ in each human pregnancy?"

"Well, yeah, but... yeah, I guess you have a point. It's just odd because I didn't ever get huge with Jacob or Cassidy." Shaking her head, Lois shrugged on her coat, zipping it up halfway. "I guess my uterus finally just said to hell with trying to stay taut and decided to be as stretchy as it could manage. That, or this kid is even better at sucking resources out of my body than the previous two were." Pausing, Lois took her gloves out of her pocket and slipped each one on. "I actually have something of a bone to pick with you, Jor-El. Years ago you told me that it was somewhere between very unlikely and a pipe dream that we would have kids. The genetics, the fact that the baby might be so strong that it would kick through my stomach... I assumed this," she said waving a hand around her stomach, "wouldn't happen. So color me confused that not only have I had two, but in the years of my life where my fertility is supposed to be going downhill fast I'm having another. Do you have an explanation for this, or should I just chock it up to all the sex Clark and I have, plus a lot of luck?"

"Genetic compatibility for offspring between a kryptonian and a human is minimal, Lois Lane Kent. It is also unlikely that such a child could be carried to term by a human, due to the nature of kryptonian strength from your yellow sun. There is what you call luck involved in the conceptions, but that you are carrying a third child is also a testament to the strength of your body. The kryptonian race lives on through you, and for that I am grateful Kal-El chose you as his life mate, Lois Lane Kent."

Huh. He made a point that she'd never really thought about before, and it really seemed like she should have. A _whole_ _race of people _was living on through her and Clark. She was literally carrying one of the last people of a dead world inside her. It was either really cool or really depressing, possibly both, and it was definitely a huge responsibility. At least this was just occurring to her now. If this had happened when she was pregnant with Jacob she'd have gone crazy feeling like she was under pressure to make sure the kryptonian race lived on. Shaking off a thought process that she could lose herself in for days, she zipped up her coat and pulled the hood up over her head. "Thanks for the clean bill of health, Jor-El. I'm ready to be sent back."


	12. Chapter 12

- Chapter 12

Backing into her apartment, Vicki did her best not to break contact with the lips pleasurably attached to her own as she tossed her coat away, freeing her hands to run through and grasp onto his soft, dark hair. He kicked the door shut and she took the opportunity to jump up and wrap her legs around his waist. She ground into him and took no small pleasure out of the fact that he had a very pronounced bulge to grind against after just minutes of making out at the door. Working at the buttons on her shirt, she pulled it off and tossed it aside, still keeping her lips on his, before wrapping her arms around his neck and grinding against him again. He backed her against the wall, now thrusting up against her. With her shirt off he buried his head between her breasts, kissing and sucking on each. Tossing her glasses aside, she reached down between their bodies and found his zipper, pulling it down, slipping her hand inside his pants and finding his erection. She raised an eyebrow as he pulled his head away, inhaling loudly. "No boxers tonight, Jeff?"

She slowly ran her hand up and down him, smiling slyly as his eyes became very heavily lidded. "I don't... there's not really much... difference in my mind between wearing boxers... and going commando." Shaking her head, she positioned him at her entrance and not only teased him by rubbing the head slowly against her, making herself hotter and wetter the more she did it. She bit her lip and closed her eyes, only to hear him say, "No panties tonight, Vicki?"

"I was looking forward to this part of the date," she said breathlessly, "so I skipped ahead a step." She knew that this wasn't really going to last long for either of them, and she was ok with that. She wanted instant gratification because it felt like it had been years since she'd had sex. As far as she could remember it hadn't been anywhere near that long. This being their fourth official date, after spending a few evenings talking when everybody from the _Gazette_ had gone out for drinks, Vicki had planned on this conclusion, though the literal jumping of him hadn't been planned.

Vicki stopped the teasing now, putting him where she wanted him. When she held him there without moving for a second he thrust up into her. _God,_ that felt good. He started moving after a moment, establishing a strong rhythm. She'd been right; it wasn't lasting long. Normally she couldn't orgasm just from penetration, but all the buildup had brought her to the edge, and she knew that with a soon she was going to fall over it. Gasping, she reached back and grasped around, finally finding something to hold onto on the wall, not really caring what it was, and starting rolling her hips as he thrust, matching him. That just made it even better, and after a minute of that she cried out as the orgasm she had known was coming washed over her. She felt him lose his rhythm and he moaned loudly into her chest as he came, slowing down and finally stopping a moment later. He pulled out as he softened and let her down onto shaky legs. That had been a _really_ good orgasm. She proceeded to straighten out her skirt as she heard him fixing his pants. Looking up, she smiled. "So, how about that coffee I offered?"

* * *

><p>"Vicki! Hey, Vicki, wait up!"<p>

Slowing down, Vicki waited as Ashley caught up to her before taking up the pace she'd had a moment before. "So? How did the date go last night? I'm assuming it went well because I was in the elevator with Jeff this morning and he had this stupid little smile like he knew something that the rest of the world didn't know. Plus, no tie. I've never seen him without a tie, not even when we were all out drinking."

"Your subtlety knows no bounds, Ashley. If you want to ask, just go ahead and ask." Coming to a stop in front of her desk, she searched through a stack of papers for a second, trying to find what she'd originally walked over from the copy machine to get. "If you'd rather just drop hints and wait for me to volunteer information, you might want to find a comfortable chair."

"Fine, I'll get right to it then." She leaned in close to her, apparently having the discretion to ask her question quietly. "Did you have crazy wild monkey sex with Jeff from legal last night?"

Raising an eyebrow, Vicki rolled her eyes before moving around her desk to sit down. She could make the copies later. Ashley pulled a chair over from the empty desk next to hers, getting a little closer than she wanted her. She was a nice girl with tons of potential, though she was tempted to put her more in the category of gossip columnist at the moment. It was undeserved; Ashley was twelve years younger than her and obsessed with who did what with whom in the office. It was only natural for somebody young and acclimating to a big office after coming from a small office where everybody knew everything about everybody. She had only worked there about three weeks, so with any luck she would grow out of it. "I did not have crazy wild monkey sex with Jeff."

"What? But I could have sworn-"

Vicki raised a hand up and stopped her short. Couldn't hurt to throw the girl a bone. "I did, however, have pinned up against the wall, can barely stand because my legs are shaking from that orgasm sex."

Ashley's face lit up, a huge grin overtaking her. "Are you serious?"

Vicki played it cool, going back to looking at the papers she held. "Might be. I also might be making the whole thing up just to get people off my back about supposedly being Bruce Wayne's girlfriend. What do you think?" Peeking at her out of the corner of her eye, she had to fight a grin as she saw a look of confusion about what to believe.

"I don't... I mean, I know about the rumors. Everybody in the city that pays any attention to what Bruce Wayne does knows about the rumors that you're his girlfriend. They've been going strong for, what, four months now? This is despite the fact that you two haven't been seen together in public in three months."

Maybe she had been closer than she thought with that gossip columnist thought. She was really going to have to work on the girl's focus. "He and I got to know each other in the first couple months I worked here, and now it's been five months, so it makes sense."

"Are you?"

Vicki turned and looked at her over the top of her glasses. "Am I what?"

"You know," Ashley said, motioning with her hand instead of actually coming out and asking the question.

"I don't know, not until you ask me."

"Are you dating Bruce Wayne?"

Motioning her in closer, Vicki got real close to Ashley, almost putting her mouth on her ear. "I might be. I might not be. But you're going to have to ask better questions than that if you want to get somebody to tell you something straight out. Next time try leading me somewhere innocuous with questions I won't suspect have anything to do with the question you actually want answered, then hit me hard with questions I can't avoid answering, not without some hemming and hawing." Sitting up straight again, Vicki smiled at her and gave her a conciliatory pat on the leg. "Here endeth the lesson. Go get back to work. I'm sure Ryan gave you something he wants before the day's done."

"I all ready gave Mr. Payne what he assigned me and I took tomorrow off because my family is coming to make sure that I haven't been corrupted by the mean streets of Gotham. He said I could go home for the day, but I saw you and wanted to see what had happened with Jeff last night."

"Where are you from originally?"

"Upstate New York. Little place you've never heard of that barely qualifies as big enough to appear on a map."

Grabbing a highlighter and sweeping a few of the hairs out of her eyes, hairs that reminded her she needed to dye her hair again as she didn't feel like going back to being blonde, Vicki ran it over a couple spots before putting the lid back on. "I think it's nice that your family is coming to Gotham to check on you. Shows that they care."

"What about you? Where are you from?"

"I'm here now, and that's what matters."

"But where you come from can tell so much!"

Conversations like this were why Vicki preferred to let other people work with young journalists. "Fine, fine. I'm from Lawrence, Kansas."

"Does your family still live there?"

Vicki shrugged. "No siblings, my mom split when I was young and my dad died about five years ago."

"I'm sorry," Ashley said, then sat forward a little bit. "But if you are Bruce Wayne's secret girlfriend then you could be the mother of the next generation of Wayne's and have, like, billions of dollars at your disposal!

"I'll keep that in mind just in case he and I are dating," she said wryly, shaking her head a little. "Of course, I would have no idea what to do with all that money, and if I actively wanted kids I'm pretty certain that I would have had them by now, or at least have thought about addressing that fact before I turn forty."

"You don't want kids? But they're so... so... they're kids! And you'd be so good with them! I've only been here three weeks and you've taught me so much I can't believe I can remember it all. Your kids would be, like, geniuses or something."

"I appreciate the praise, but there's a world of difference between being a twenty-four year old's barely willing mentor and being a parent." She paused, trying to find the right words. "In all seriousness, Ashley, don't let them tell you that the city is worse than it is. Family always tries to tell loved ones that around here. I haven't been here all that long, but it's plain to see that the paper loses too much young talent, what young talent there is willing to go into print journalism, to people around them being worried about their safety."

"Oh, don't worry. The only thing that could get me to leave here would be if the_ Daily Planet_ wanted me. I love this paper, but they're the best."

"Hardly," Vicki snorted, "at least not since they fired Perry White, Lois Lane and everybody else at the paper that supported Superman." Off a questioning look, she continued. "From what I've heard, the suits there felt they had to do something about their sharp drop in circulation after the city was bombed. They were the only paper in the city that never questioned Superman's loyalty after he disappeared, claiming that something had happened to him, that he hadn't abandoned the city. People were pissed at him, though, so they stopped reading his biggest public supporter. Now the_ Planet_ is a sounding board for any xenophobic journalist that feels a super hero is an intruder in Metropolis, or even America, on the same level as the _National Enquirer_ or any other publication of that ilk." Turning, she looked Ashley straight in the eye. "As somebody you consider a mentor, I'm telling you this straight out: the_ Daily Planet_ is bad news in every sense of the phrase. If you pride yourself on being a true journalist, stay away from that newspaper."

* * *

><p>Walking down the hallway to her apartment, Vicki smiled a little as Jeff wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her a little closer as they walked. "I'm really enjoying what we've got going on here, Vicki."<p>

She nodded, pulling her keys out of her purse as they approached her door. "I am too. It's been a while since I've gone out on seven dates with anybody, which isn't counting the sexual workouts we've been putting each other through between those dates." Deciding to take a barely thought out leap, she spoke again. "I don't know about you, but I'm not seeing anybody else and I like it that way. I wasn't looking for what we have, but I'm glad I found it."

Jeff grinned widely. "I feel exactly the same way." He pulled her into a hug, and she could feel him shaking his head. "I don't think the talk has ever gone this easily before. Were I one to believe in something silly like signs, I would say this is a good one, but since I don't I'll stick to saying that I guess we're exclusive, as they once put it."

"Good," Vicki said through a smile. "I like the sound of that." Unlocking the door after unwrapping herself from the hug, she took him by the hand, pulling him inside behind her. She heard the door close behind her and turned to face him, grinning lasciviously. "And with the establishment of our exclusivity, I do believe a bit of celebration is in order. I'm going to get some wine. Why don't you wait in the bedroom after slipping into something less clothed."

He backed away, smiling. "Done and done. Don't take too long."

Walking into her kitchen, Vicki searched her cupboards for a second to find some acceptable wine glasses and put them on the counter before grabbing one of the two bottles of wine she had. Getting a corkscrew out of a drawer after a noisy search through various items she rarely used, she worked at it a minute before getting the cork popped. With the glasses in one hand and the wine bottle in the other, she walked through the living room and to her room, smiling as she got to the doorway. "All right, we have wine, we have..." Trailing off, she stopped in the doorway, seeing him lying down on the bed, curled up as if sleeping. Confused, she was about to move closer to see if he had actually fallen asleep when she spotted a spreading dark spot beneath him, seeping out behind his back. Eyes wide, she fought the urge to panic and looked around the room, not seeing anything or anyone that could have caused it. Her room was fairly open, and the only places she could think of where people might hide were the bathroom, the closet and behind the door. There wasn't anything she could do about the first two, but the third...

Throwing herself into the door, Vicki felt it thump against something that wasn't the wall and heard a grunt. As she bounced back she quickly regained her balance and retreated to the living room. Dumping the wine and glasses, she jumped across the coffee table and dove for the end table next to the couch, reaching underneath and grabbing the gun she'd bought after moving to Gotham. Checking the clip, she spun and faced her bedroom, finger floating above the trigger. Nobody yet. Probably didn't want to give up their ambush. Backing away from the bedroom slowly, she got back to the kitchen and while keeping one eye on the doorway started rummaging around in her purse, trying to find her phone. Finally finding it, she dialed 911 and put it up to her ear, holding it between ear and shoulder so that she could have two hands on the gun. When she heard an answer she spoke quietly. "800 Twelfth Avenue, apartment 33. Somebody is in my apartment and attacked my boyfriend. He's either been stabbed or shot, I couldn't tell. Send police and an ambulance. Tell them not to hesitate entering. The door's unlocked. Please hurry." Putting the phone down, she could hear the person on the other end of the line asking more questions, but she didn't have time to answer them. She wasn't going to run, not while there might be any chance that she could get Jeff out of this alive.

Approaching the bedroom slowly, she kept her gun pointed at the partially closed door. No taking chances, not this time. She shot three times into it before charging in and kicking it all the way open. Looking around, she was about to turn and check a corner when somebody tackled her from behind. Rolling around on the ground a moment, she lost hold of the gun, scrambling for it before being pulled away. Turning, she kicked the man in the arm before getting up to her feet, facing her attacker and another guy standing to his left. The first rushed her, swinging a fist wildly that she easily avoided. Kicking him in the knee, he buckled, which brought his face down to a level she could easily reach. She struck with the palm of her right hand, smashing it into his nose. Not bothering to watch him fall limply to the ground, somehow knowing he wouldn't be getting up, she turned and faced the other man, finding him charging in, blade in hand.

The second man was more skilled than the first, and she had to avoid his knife coming at her from multiple angles. Finally catching an arm, she pulled with his momentum and sent him flying into the dresser. He was quick, though, and turned, slashing wildly, forcing her to back away. He inched forward slowly and Vicki held her ground until he came within reach. He lunged forward, trying to stab her in the chest, but she was able to sidestep and knock the knife out of his hand. While he tried to recover Vicki pushed forward, using short punches into his face to knock him back. He stumbled and fell backwards and Vicki pounced, pounding as hard as she could into his stomach with her foot twice. His arms dropped from protecting his face to protect his midsection and Vicki spun on her heel, catching him flush across the temple with her foot, snapping his head to the side.

Moving back, Vicki couldn't take her eyes off the two men on her floor as she caught her breath and tried to slow her heart down . How had she done that? She'd never had any training to do what she had just done, but she'd done it all without thinking, like it was second nature. She hadn't even hesitated. But all of that flew out of her mind when one important fact came back to her: Jeff was bleeding on her bed.

* * *

><p>Scratching idly at an eyebrow, Vicki sat in the hospital chair, watching all the people in the room with her. She had been warned about a night like this, a night where somebody finally took a shot at her. A hazard of her profession in Gotham. She'd certainly done her fair share to piss off almost every crime syndicate that she possibly could since joining the <em>Gazette<em>, and had been expecting some form of retaliation. Knowing what she was getting into when she had agreed to take the job, she'd bought the gun, as little help as it had been tonight. People waiting in her apartment for her was unfortunate, and meant she definitely needed a new place to live, but the retaliation should have been against her, not a guy she was dating who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

She had been waiting too long. Her leg started bouncing, the only outlet she would allow her body to find for its pent up nervous energy. Patience had never been a strong point for her, a virtue she'd never taken the time to try and develop. There were other virtues out there better suited to her, such as tenacity, toughness and strength. And, apparently, a penchant for martial arts she couldn't remember training in. That was new, unexpected, and for tonight extremely useful in not getting killed by thugs hiding in her bedroom. The paramedics had checked her out, too, despite her insistence that she'd barely been touched, and had made her get the once over from a doctor when they'd arrived at the hospital. Nothing broken or even bruised, they had finally let her go, though she hadn't gone far. The surgical waiting room had been one floor up from the emergency room.

"Ms. Vale?" Looking over, Vicki spotted a doctor accompanied by a police officer. Great. The questions portion of the evening was always fun. She stood up and met them halfway. "This is Detective Jackson. He'd like to ask some questions about what happened tonight."

"That's what I figured. How's Jeff?"

"He's still in surgery. He was stabbed twice in his right side and lost a lot of blood. The extent of his injuries couldn't even be determined until they had him on the table, so it could still be another hour or two until they're finished, if not longer."

"Okay," she answered, not having anything to say to that. She turned to face the officer. "Where should we do this?"

"I had an office set aside. Follow me, please." Doing as he asked, Vicki followed the officer down a hallway, and entered an office as he held the door open for her. As she sat down she reached into her pocket and turned on her cell phone's recorder before settling into the chair. She never knew who she could and couldn't trust from the Gotham PD. "All right, Ms. Vale, describe the situation as it happened, please." Vicki described what happened, throwing in all the details she could remember, and when she was done was met by an unbelieving stare from the detective. "You knocked one of the men out, Ms. Vale. He was admitted to the hospital unconscious but stable. The other man, the one whom you struck in the nose, died instantly. That was a killing blow, which raises the following question: are you very lucky or have you been trained to deliver a blow like that?"

"He's _dead_?" Vicki asked, and Detective Jackson nodded. "I don't know what you want me to say, Detective," she said quietly, frowning and looking away. The man had died instantly? She hadn't wanted to kill him, no matter how murderous his intentions towards her and Jeff. How could she have killed a man when she didn't even know what she'd done? "I was acting on instinct and adrenaline. You hear those crazy stories about the women that lift cars up off their kids when they're running on adrenaline, so I guess I just got lucky."

"Lucky." His disbelief virtually dripped off the word.

"Lucky," she repeated, looking him dead in the eye.

"Why would they target you?"

"I'm a journalist, working for the _Gazette_ for the past seven months or so. I haven't made a whole lot of friends in the criminal population of Gotham since I started. Quite the opposite, in fact, and I had a recent article that exposed six judges that were taking bribes. I was half expecting something to happen, so I'm not surprised it did. I just wish it hadn't happened to Jeff."

After writing something down, he closed his little notebook and shoved it into his jacket pocket. "We'll continue the investigation, but unless we find something extraordinary this should go down as a case of self defense. I appreciate your cooperation."

"If you wouldn't mind," she asked, "tell Commissioner Gordon that I say hello." With a quick nod of his head, he walked out, leaving Vicki to go back to waiting for any news on what was happening in regards to Jeff. After turning off her phone recording, she decided to stay in the room for a few more minutes. If she was going to be waiting anyway, she was at least going to do it in a chair that was somewhat comfortable.

* * *

><p>Pulling a pencil from behind her ear, Vicki underlined a few bits of information, making sure that it would catch her attention when she went through it again. Placing the pencil back behind her ear, she continued going through the papers, sitting quietly in Jeff's room. She had taken to working in his hospital room over the past week, trying to keep him company, waiting for him to wake up. They said it could be any day. Any hour, even, now that he was off the respirator. She had tried willing him to wake up, probably half a dozen times after he'd come out of surgery. The doctor that had worked on him said that he'd been very lucky that more damage hadn't been done, and had expected a lot worse. Still, it was the massive blood loss that was hampering his recovery. He had been minutes from bleeding to death, she'd been told, and that had scared her. That had scared her a lot.<p>

She'd been surprised by the depth of feeling she'd had when the surgeon had told her that he'd been moments from death. Having had time to think about it in the subsequent days, once the emotional pendulum wasn't swinging so much to the extreme, she had found that she cared for him more than she'd thought. It had been an interesting revelation. For a long time now all the men she had dated for any length of time had been men she'd known would be a person she could be with for six months or so, but wouldn't be a long term partner. But she'd called him her boyfriend when talking to the 911 operator, without even thinking about it. They'd had 'the talk' establishing that they were, in fact, in a relationship. Jeff, one way or another, had gotten past her 'potential long term relationship guy' sensors and now she was sleeping with somebody that she could see herself going years with, not just months. The malfunction of those sensors was a high priority on her list of things to fix about herself, assuming she wasn't in a relationship for years on end.

"Vicki?"

Looking in the direction of her quietly spoken name, she looked over at Jeff and found him with his eyes open, causing her to break out into a smile, setting aside her work material and walking over to the bed. Pushing her glasses up from the low place on her nose where they had been sitting as she worked, she leaned down and kissed him gently. "Hey, you. How are you feeling?

"My side hurts. What happened?"

"You don't remember?"

"I walked into your bedroom and next thing I know I'm waking up here, wherever here is, with tubes running into my arm."

"Ok," she said, exhaling loudly before finding the words. "There were two men in my bedroom, waiting for me to get home. While I was getting the wine they knocked you out and stabbed you four times, all in your right side. They laid you down in the bed to make it look like you were sleeping. I would have walked right into the trap if I hadn't seen the blood on the comforter, and was able to call the police and an ambulance for you. I'm not really sure how the next part happened, because I wasn't really thinking, just acting because I was scared you were dead, but I knocked out the two men and made sure the paramedics got to you safely." No use in telling him right this moment that she'd actually killed one of the men.

"And you're ok?"

"I don't really think you're the one that ought to be asking that question, but yes, I'm fine. Barely got a bruise out of the whole ordeal."

He looked away for a moment, staring up at the ceiling before nodding. "Good. I'm glad it was me that got stabbed, at least if one of us had to get stabbed. Better me lying here than you." Taking his hand, she kissed his fingers before holding them against her cheek. Yeah, she might be with him for awhile.

* * *

><p>"Does it count as the Florence Nightingale Effect if I was already falling for you? Or does that just make it the Falling For You A Little Faster Effect, because whichever way it goes, I kinda think the effect is affecting me."<p>

Fighting a grin, Vicki handed him a sandwich as she sat down on the bed next to him. It had been two weeks since he'd been released from the hospital and three since he had woken up, and she'd been staying at his house ever since, taking care of him and whatever he needed. She had been back to her apartment once, to fill suitcases with clothes and other essentials so she wouldn't have to be running back and forth. She was now very familiar not only with his house, but with the local grocery stores and other places to acquire necessities. "You're just all doped up on painkillers, Mr. Sweet Talker."

"Like hell I am. I stopped taking those heavy duty, loopy inducing legalized narcotics a few days ago. I don't like loopy. Feels good but makes thinking too much work. Plus, those things are easy to get addicted to, which is something I really don't want to bother with. Popping a couple acetaminophen every eight hours or so is keeping me from getting too uncomfortable."

"Be careful with those. The last thing you need right now is liver damage to go along with all your other injuries."

"Ok, ok." He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek before taking a bite of his sandwich. "If the way you've taken care of me is any indication, you're going to be a killer mom someday, or you will be whenever the kid is sick."

"Whoa, there. Mom?" Vicki sputtered, fighting the urge to jump out of the bed. "I was kind of hoping that you were seeing me as your sexy nurse, not your mom."

"Oh, no. Jesus, that's not what I meant at all. You're the very definition of sexy nurse. I was just saying that, in the event you were to ever have kids, be it with me or some other guy who I hope you never have to bother meeting, you'd do well. You have a firm hand when needed but you're extremely caring."

"I'm thirty-six, Jeff. I'm not old, but I'm also not exactly the proverbial spring chicken. I hadn't really thought about ever having kids."

"Really?"

"Yeah. It's not that I don't want them, because, well... I actually don't know if I want children. It's just that I've always been consumed by trying to become the best journalist that I am capable of being, and so I haven't ever really thought much about taking the time to grow and birth a new person. Maybe I don't have a biological clock like other women, I don't know." Vicki rubbed at the bridge of her nose, not sure she had explained herself well but not sure she could do it much better, so she chose to keep going. "I've rarely been in relationships where the concept of having children even came up, and when it did that was a red flag. And just so you know, the fact that this is one of those relationships really snuck up on me. I didn't figure it out until I was sitting in the hospital, waiting for you to wake up. And add to that the fact that there are no red flags going up as we're having this conversation and, well, let's just call this uncharted territory for me. I think it also says something about me that it took you almost dying for me to figure some things out."

She looked over at him, and he smiled at her. "I knew on our second date that this was a potentially great relationship, one where there are no red flags and the topic of children comes up. We went to that great Italian place with the weird name that's uptown, remember? We were talking, and like it was the most natural thing in the world you reached over with your fork and took a bite of my manicotti, and I didn't care. It felt like we had that kind of familiarity already, like we clicked when we were together. I'd never felt that comfortable that quickly before. It was disarming, and exactly what I'd always wanted to find. But I wasn't sure I ever would, and while that doesn't mean we'll never have rough patches, in my book, it means we'll weather those rough patches. What we have is too good not to last."

"Wow." Unfortunately, that was all she could manage. She was thrown enough by what he had said and the realization of the truth behind his statement that she hadn't been able to manage her usual witty response to a serious topic, which in turn threw her even more. That was a whole lot more throwing that she was used to being involved in.

"Kind of how I felt about it." They sat in silence for a little while, Jeff eating his sandwich. In an attempt to give her body some way to use the pent up energy she now realized was causing her to grind her teeth together, Vicki reached over and pulled a little piece off his sandwich and popped it into her mouth before she even realized what she was doing. When she did realize what she had just done, she looked over to find Jeff grinning at her. "See? It's completely natural for us to share food."

"Or at least I'm a natural food mooch," she said after swallowing.

"I like to disregard anything like that so we sound more natural together. The future story of our love will sound a lot better when it's 'They loved to share food' rather than 'She was a mooch he didn't mind'."

She grinned and shook her head before leaning over and resting it lightly against his arm. "I'm not going to say no kids, the end. I don't know what's going to happen. Two years from now we could be married to each other or married to other people. We've been exclusive, or however you want to put it, approximately the same length of time you've been recovering from stab wounds, so it's too soon for declarations. Plus, you know, kids is just a weird topic for me. The prospect of having somebody totally dependent on me for food, shelter and a childhood where I teach him or her to be sarcastic the smart way instead of the easy way is just... daunting. Plus, like I said earlier, not old but not young. Definitely past prime fertility if what you're looking for is a baby mama. And I think I just dated myself because that phrase hasn't been popular in nearly ten years."

"And I'm dating myself by knowing what you mean. But no, that's not what I'm looking for. I like kids but I've never been focused on having some of my own because they've disliked me through the years, even my nieces. It was just kind of an innocuous statement, but I like where it's taken us. I like that we're putting our cards on the table." He stopped as he swallowed, and she watched as he seemed to gather his thoughts. "I'm just under three months from turning forty. It's not like I'm in my prime either." Vicki had to stop herself from scoffing at that idea. He was in amazing shape for any age, let alone nearly forty. He was smack dab in the middle of his prime. "Our primes aside, I think the sum of the parts is greater than that of the individuals when we're together. Like you said, it's too early for declarations of this or that. For now we just be together and see where we end up." He held out his hand. "Deal?"

Raising an eyebrow, she waited a second before shaking his hand. "Deal."

"Good, because a verbal contract is binding in Gotham. Now you're stuck with me."

Vicki was sorely tempted to smack him on the arm as he grinned at her, but held back out of deference to his injuries, instead saying, "See, that right there is why people don't like lawyers. I _guess_ I can be magnanimous this time, but don't get used to it, _counselor_."

* * *

><p>"I'll get it."<p>

Vicki put a hand on Jeff's chest, keeping him from getting up off the couch. "You stay there. I'll get the door."

"It's my house, Vicki. While I enjoy the fact that you want to do things for me, I'm fine now. My convalescence is over. I go back to work on Monday, and as proven the past nine or ten days I'm even well enough for sex. I believe it's time for me to take that vital step of answering the door."

"Humor me," she said, getting up off the couch. "And really, why do something so blah as answering the door when you don't have to? I know that, were positions reversed, I would be sitting back with my arms behind my head while you wanted to do things for me, hoping that the good times never ended."

"I've never been good at being lazy."

"How very sad for you," she said in an overly sad voice, though she was only half joking. When there was a second knock on the door she called back over her shoulder, "Back in a minute." Getting to the door, she opened it and was surprised at who she found on the other side. "Bruce? What are you doing here?"

He smiled as she stepped outside, pulling the door shut behind her. "I've been out of town and didn't really feel like the phone call we had after the attack at your apartment was enough to make sure you were ok. I wanted to see for myself."

"Well I appreciate that, but I'm fine. How did you even know that I was here?"

"A helpful young reporter at the _Gazette_ intercepted me when I went to your office yesterday afternoon to see you. Ashley was her name, I think. When I asked if you were in, she told me that you were here taking care of your boyfriend, and even gave me the address." He suddenly smiled, that half to himself grin that he always wore when having his picture taken or at some event with his woman of the month. "She was cute; I should ask her out."

"Going to have to talk to her about giving out my location," Vicki mumbled before looking back at Bruce. "And no, you are not going to ask Ashley out. I am working way too hard to make her into a quality journalist to have you sweep her off her feet and take her focus off her work for the next four to six weeks, or whenever you get tired of her. She is off limits." She accentuated her point with a finger to his chest, making sure he got the point before pulling her hand back. "Anyway, I really do appreciate the gesture of checking up on me in person, but it wasn't necessary. You know that my phone is always on."

"I do, but I may have ulterior motives. I'd like to meet the man who seems to have so tamed Vicki Vale, a woman that I asked out on a third date and was told in response, and I quote, 'I don't have anymore time to play arm candy for the cameras. Plus, I'm not nearly vapid enough to go out on that many dates with you. It would make people think you were losing your playboy edge, and who wants that to happen?' I have to say, that rejection still stings a little bit."

"Good, because I meant every word." She chewed on her lip for a second, glancing back at the closed door. "And I haven't been _tamed_. Far from it. I've just... slowed down a little, to take care of a guy I have feelings for."

"I can understand that. Do you love him?"

It was a surprisingly personal question from Bruce, considering they usually kept things pretty light, but she wasn't afraid to answer. Looking up into his eyes, she shrugged. "I'm falling, and not slowly. I'll let you know when I hit. Do you really want to meet Jeff?"

"Yes, I do."

She nodded. "All right. Give me a minute. He's well enough, but I want to tell him what's going on instead of bringing you inside and yelling 'Surprise!' because that seems like a bad idea, though not much worse than introducing my boyfriend to a man I used to date. That's something I can't imagine ever goes very well." Walking inside, she found Jeff right where she'd left him. "Hey, got a question for you."

"Wondered where you'd gotten to. Who was at the door?"

"Kind of what the question is about. My friend Bruce is here, and he would like to come inside and say hi, maybe get to know you a little bit."

"Ah, friend approval," he said, grinning. "Bring it on."

"You sure?"

"You know it. This is the part of a relationship where I tend to excel."

"All right." She started walking back to the front door, but stopped after a few steps. She should at least let him go into this with all the information. "Oh, and my friend Bruce is Bruce Wayne. Just thought you should know."

* * *

><p>Waiting at the door to the Wayne Manor, Vicki tapped her foot until the door opened, revealing Alfred. "Hello, Ms. Vale. How are you this evening?"<p>

"I'm fine, thank you," she said as she stepped inside. "I _am_ somewhat curious as to why Bruce wanted me to come over tonight when we spent a couple hours together the day he got to know Jeff. We haven't talked to each other more than once a month since we dated, and it's only been two weeks."

"He's waiting for you in the main den, so perhaps he'll be able to explain. Right this way, please."

* * *

><p>"Hey, there you are. I was wondering if Bruce had taken you on one of his international trysts."<p>

Smiling, Vicki put her jacket up on a hook before shoving her hands into her pockets and walking into the living room. She found Jeff sitting on the couch in his work clothes, though he'd gotten rid of the tie. "Sorry it took so long. Bruce wanted to get my thoughts on something he's putting out to the press, trusting me to give him a straight answer more than his PR team, and as it turned out I had a lot of thoughts about it. Took a little while to voice them all." She sat down next to him, and after wrapping an arm around her shoulders he pulled her close.

"Sounds interesting, but you know what? I'm happy to have you here, Vicki. The place feels kind of empty to me when you aren't here."

"Really?"

"Really. I think I'm just going to have to keep you here from now on. I like the house a lot more with you in it. I know that you haven't cared to go back to your apartment since I was stabbed, so if you don't think it's too early, I think you should just live here. I know that we had a declaration against declarations, but I think six weeks is long enough to say that its statue of limitations has run out. As a result, I'm saying I want you to move in with me. What do you say?"

Even had she wanted to fight it, Vicki knew she couldn't have stopped the smile on her face anymore than she could have stopped an avalanche. "Yeah, I'll move in with you."


	13. Chapter 13

- Chapter 13

"There's no need to be nervous."

"I'm going to be as nervous as I am no matter if you tell me I shouldn't be nervous," Vicki said, sucking on the inside of her lip for a second. "That's just how this crazy old brain of mine works."

"My sister is going to love you. It's inevitable, because I love you. And your brain is far from old." Jeff reached over and grasped her hand, which saved her fingers from wearing holes in the dash of his car from the constant drumming motion they'd been in, but didn't do much else when it came to calming her nerves. "I'm going for the reassuring touch here." It was his sister's birthday, their large group of friends having decided to throw a party for her, Jeff being a part of that planning which had somehow ended up with the party being at his sister's house. As a result this had become a situation where Vicki was going to be meeting her live-in boyfriend's only family. His parents had died when he and his sister were teenagers, and while they had lived with grandparents after that both their parents had been only children. The grandparents had since passed, leaving just the two of them. According to Jeff they had always been close, even after she had gotten married and had children. That meant that for as long as Jeff was in her Vicki's life, so was his sister.

"I don't really _do_ meeting the family," she said, ignoring his attempt at reassurance in favor of continuing to be nervous. "When I do meet family I have a serious problem with my foot flying into my mouth." She had known that meeting his sister and friends was going to happen eventually, and was shocked it hadn't happened sooner, notably during his hospital visit. She had thought that it would have probably been at his own birthday party, which was a week later, a couple days after his actual birthday, but that was before she had known his sister's birthday was earlier the same week. A second party in a week seemed excessive, but he hadn't been shy about the fact that their group of friends liked any excuse to get together. Any other time Vicki wouldn't have cared about that, but right now it felt like something much more important than it was. It meant that she would have to see the people she was about to meet again in the almost immediate future. "Seriously, it's like a disorder. I've had it checked out by doctors. Plus, this is the first time since... ever, really, that meeting family has actually meant something to me, which means my foot may very well fly into my mouth in record time."

"Do you know what the vena amoris is?"

Vicki only half considered what he said, not at all sure what a couple words of Latin had to do with her being nervous. "Well, I can tell you the phrase translates to 'love vein', but I'm not really sure where you're going with this."

"Bear with me," he said as he held up her left hand, the one intertwined with his. Pulling his fingers out from between hers but still holding it up, he pointed to her ring finger. "The vena amoris, the love vein, is the reason we wear wedding rings on the fourth finger of our left hand. Legend says in this finger there lies a vein that runs directly to the heart. This dates all the way back to ancient Egypt." Bringing her finger up to his mouth, he gently kissed each side of it. "What I'm doing now is activating that special connection to your heart. Through this action I will both calm you down and remind you just how much I love you, and how much that isn't going to change should foot fly into mouth." He looked up and smiled at her. "I know that it's daunting, going and meeting family and friends like this, but I wouldn't have you at a family and friends function like this if I didn't think you belonged. You're my girlfriend, whom I love very much and share a home with. This is just another step on the relationship path, as you know."

"I do," Vicki said, taking in a deep breath and releasing it slowly. "I just haven't ever had any luck with this sort of thing, even when I didn't care, so it makes me nervous. I want to get to know your sister. I still can't believe that we never met while you were in the hospital. She must have been there whenever I wasn't, which was rarely."

"About that... Beth doesn't know that I got stabbed."

Gaping at him, she could barely believe what she'd just heard. "You never told her? How could you do that! Better question is, How did she not find out through some other means? I never read or watched any coverage of the incident, but there are so many leaks in the Gotham police department I had just assumed your name and where you were stabbed were out in the public record."

He shook his head. "My name was never officially released, and if Beth knows she has done an incredible job of not saying anything about it, which would be totally unlike her."

"So don't mention you getting stabbed in my apartment and the fact that we fell in love while I was nursing you back to health?" Vicki couldn't help the glare she found herself shooting at him, realizing the position she was now in. "Lying is _not_ the sort of thing that endears a girlfriend to family, Jeff. In fact, it's kind of the opposite of how you want to do things. Plus, you _have_ to tell her that happened. It's a huge thing, and you can't _not_ tell her about it. Twenty years down the road she'll find out and totally take you to task for it."

"Better to take my lumps now, eh?"

"The lumps you take will certainly grow larger with each day that passes without telling her." Frowning, Vicki thought about what she'd said. "Let me rephrase that. The more time that passes, the madder she's going to be at you. Right now it'll probably be a smack you upside the head angry. Years down the line it'll be a lot of smacks upside the head angry."

"Duly noted." He paused. "Uh oh. I think we've been spotted." He pointed out her window, and turning her head to look spotted a dark haired woman that strongly resembled the dark haired man next to her. "Time to face the firing squad, Ms. Vale."

"Very funny." After a cleansing breath, she leaned over and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, an action she couldn't explain through anything but nerves, before opening her car door and stepping out. As she shut the door behind her, she heard Jeff do the same before watching him jog around the car and intercept his sister with a hug, and thought she heard him say something to her quietly but couldn't make out what it was.

He turned out of the hug, and as if on a game show, acted like he was presenting her. "This, Beth, is the woman whom I love very much, Vicki Vale. Vicki," he said as he did the same presenting thing to his sister, "this is my not-a-day-over twenty-nine sister, Beth Davis."

"Not a day over twenty-nine, am I? Sweet talk will get you nowhere, but I do appreciate it." She winked at him, then made a show of appraising the woman in front of her, leaving Vicki to do her best and not fidget. "So this is the woman that has captured your heart?"

"I keep it in a cage in my closet. That way it can't escape, but just in case he ever needs it for anything it's close by," Vicki said. As soon as she'd said it, though, she couldn't help but roll her eyes at herself. One was supposed to break the ice with good jokes, not terrible ones. "That was just my horrible attempt at humor. What I should have said is that I let him keep his heart, but I planted a little flag in it that says 'Claimed in the name of Vicki Vale. Trespassers beware.'" Smacking herself in the forehead, she sighed and adjusted her glasses so they sat more comfortably. "I'm a rambling cliché, aren't I?"

Jeff was the one to answer her. "It's kind of cute to see somebody that never loses her cool lose her cool a little bit. I stress the cute."

Looking up, Vicki smiled at Beth. "Sorry. Your brother did a very good job of keeping my nerves in check in the car, but unfortunately his whole speech and use of the vena amoris to calm me down lasted all of twelve seconds."

"The first time I met my in-laws," Beth said, "I spent the whole afternoon trying to compete with his ex, whom they had all loved before they'd broken off their engagement. It had been years since they'd broken up and since they had last seen her, but they were still hung up on her. It was like something out of a horrible movie, or maybe the kind of thing they base those horrible movies on. That was an afternoon of torture, and I told myself as it was happening I would never do anything like that to any future children, or anybody else I love for that matter." She pointed at Jeff with her thumb, saying, "He's one of the people I love most in this world, so I say welcome, Vicki." And with that, Vicki found herself wrapped in a hug by Beth, and even stranger than that was that she found herself returning the hug. "If Jeff loves you, then you're ok by me. He has very good taste in people. Just look at his sister."

Laughing, Vicki pulled away and stuffed her hands in the pockets of her jeans as Jeff wrapped an arm around her. "I've never really had anybody welcome me quite so warmly before."

"And it's things like _that_ that make people think the world is going to hell. Come on, let's go inside. I'm pretty easy to win over, and so are most of our friends, but there are a lot of us. Did he tell you there would be over twenty people here, or was he vague and lawyer like?"

They started walking up towards the house, Vicki still smiling as she said, "He neglected to mention how many people would be here, though he did mention you guys have a large group of friends. He's lucky I only have the one friend that he had to win over."

"Tell her who your friend is, Vicki."

"Is it somebody special?"

"Well, he likes to think so. My friend is Bruce Wayne."

Beth stopped short of the door, turning to face her with eyebrows sitting far up on her forehead in surprise. "Your best friend is Gotham's enigmatic playboy?"

"Trust me, he's hardly enigmatic. Bruce Wayne is one of the few people in the world where what you see is exactly what you get: he'll wine you, dine you and try to sleep with you, and not always in that order. Anything beyond that and he loses interest. He isn't all that interested in most guys unless it's a special case, such as Jeff. I don't know how we ended up being friends, considering we went on a couple dates and I stopped seeing him because I didn't feel like being cast as vapid by the adoring public, but it seems to work for us."

"He seems smarter than that to me, but I guess you would know." Stopping with her hand on the doorknob, Beth smiled at her. "You ready for the fun?"

Vicki smiled. "With the reception I got from you my anxiety has been quieted from a load roar to an annoying buzz."

Walking inside, Vicki found that there were between fifteen and twenty people mingling and spotted a few more through a sliding glass door standing out in the backyard. She felt Jeff slide an arm around her waist, his hand coming to rest on her right hip and his thumb hooking inside of her jeans and underwear, and started running it gently against her skin. Looking up at him, she raised an eyebrow as he guided her along slowly, and she could tell that he was having to work hard to keep a straight face. "You _so_ think you're getting away with something right now, don't you?"

"Not at all. What I'm doing is attempting to distract my girlfriend from the fact that she's in a room full of strangers that are going to be judging her for hours on end."

"All I'm worried about right now is your sister, and that isn't even that big of a worry anymore," she said quietly. Spotting somebody walking up to them, she gave his hand a quick pat. "If she likes me, then I think everybody else will like me to. She's the key domino."

"How very cunning of you. Garret, hey!" Vicki almost sighed as Jeff pulled his hand away. She wasn't going to say anything, but his thumb rubbing gently against her hip had been soothing and a little arousing all at once. "Garret, this is Vicki. Vicki, Garret."

She reached out and shook his hand. "Hi. Nice to meet you."

"You too." He looked her in the eye for a moment, then broke out into a wide smile as he looked over at Jeff. "She's slumming it a little bit, isn't she?"

"Well I wasn't going to tell _him_ that!" she exclaimed, beating Jeff to the punch. "But I guess the cat's out of the bag now, so he'll just have to live with the fact that he has a _very_ attractive woman in love with him. I bet it turns out to be as much of a burden as a blessing." As Garret broke out into laughter, Vicki nudged Jeff a little bit and stood on her toes so she could whisper, "How many more times this afternoon am I going to have to call you less attractive than you really are?"

"Somewhere between two and six, depending upon who's here," he whispered back. She kissed him on the cheek before lowering herself down to stand normally again. One down, a lot more to go.

* * *

><p>"I can't believe you're thirty-six and you've never been married. Look at you! Not only do you not look your age, but you look like you're more fit than any two people in this room combined."<p>

Why was it a conversation with a guy's male friends was so much easier than a conversation with his female friends? They always ended up asking questions that made her give real answers. Most of Jeff's guy friends had been easy; an offhanded comment about how he was lucky to have her or how dumb or ridiculous he could be and they liked her, though it wasn't _that_ simple. What it really was, she'd been told, was if your friend loved a girl then you loved her too, as long as she wasn't some heartless bitch dragging him around by the balls and treating him like dirt. If she was unpleasant but good to him, you would grin and bear it because he loved her. Ever since she had found out about that unofficial rule Vicki had liked to think of it as a loose kind of guy code. But now she was having a conversation with a close friend of his, a woman named Sam he had known most of his life, and the comfort level was nowhere near as close. She'd never found that kind of code applicable towards friends of the female persuasion. Maybe she had always run into the wrong women, but this seemed to be headed towards having to work harder for approval. "Well, it's never gotten that far. You know how it goes sometimes with relationships: you're good with somebody but you know it isn't going to go the distance. That's usually the kind of relationship I find and I was okay with that because I've been married to my life in journalism since I was a little kid."

The look on Sam's face easily conveyed that what she was hearing in this conversation was not what she thought was best for Jeff. Maybe female friends were less trusting of a guy's judgement, which made them more protective. That, or women didn't like her. "Being a journalist was my dream job from the moment I had a dream job. I wanted to get to the truth of the matter and it takes a lot of dedication to the job to get to where I'm at now, and almost as much work, if not more at times, to stay at that level. So when I was in those relationships, there was no push for it to go further on my end because my job came first for me. If a guy wanted more, which was rare, we parted ways. My longest relationship since college is two years because we were both comfortable with what it was: companionship for the sake of companionship. But with Jeff... he seemed to be invisible when it came to the 'serious relationship with a future' radar. I was in shock when I realized I was thinking about a future with him, because that didn't happen to me. I wasn't looking for it, but here I am, meeting family and friends, telling them details about me and making the serious effort to show that I love Jeff. This isn't about not being alone. This is about messy, unforeseen love."

Pausing, Vicki idly scratched at her elbow. "I hate it when people say this, because it's a moronic thing to say, but I'm going to use it anyway. If somebody would have told me six months ago that the guy I was dating would, within six months, become so important to me that I saw him in my future decades down the line, I would have asked what they were smoking and if they were willing to share. I'm _really_ happy with him, and I honestly believe we're each others version of happily ever after. I don't plan on having an amazing chance at lasting personal life happiness slip through my fingers. I didn't even CARE about lasting personal life happiness until he came along, if that tells you anything." Chewing on her lip for a second, Vicki thought about everything she'd just said. "In retrospect, I may have deviated a little from what it was you originally asked me, and for the life of me can't remember what that was."

Sam shrugged at her. "I have no idea. You're very good with words, though. I can see why journalism suits you so well and why Jeff has been requesting I read your articles for a couple months now."

"He asks you to read my articles?"

"Repeatedly. I would have kept reading the articles simply because he's a good friend, but I really enjoy yours and they're the first thing I look for now. And just to clear the air, I like you two together. You don't have to win me over. Jeff has good taste."

Smiling, Vicki stuffed her hands in her pockets, not knowing what to do with them. "Thank goodness. I was hoping that you would approve of Jeff and I together because you're looking like a key part of the plan."

"You have a plan?"

"Well, I have this theory on friends being domino like in nature. I imagine there are key dominos in those big, beautiful designs people make, and in that same fashion I think there are key people to win over when meeting friends and family. Winning each friend over individually is time consuming and A LOT of work. My way, you identify the key friends and family, such as you, Art and Beth, the two closest friends and his sister, and win them over. With the key people won over, the acceptance radiates out from them and thus by doing less work, you've accomplished the same goal. I know this all sounds kind of like being a lazy girlfriend, and it is a little bit of that, but it's also me wanting to spend the most time with the people closest to Jeff."

"It sounds like a sort of group dynamics theory."

"I'm sure there's something similar to it out there, but where I'm concerned it's simply called 'Vicki Vale's theory of domino people.'" Sam laughed a little at that, which was what she'd been going for. The only time laughter was bad was when it was uncomfortable, and this was becoming less like an interview and more like a comfortable conversation.

"So, as a key domino in this whole thing, I feel I should ask a question that Beth never would and Art would never think to. It will possibly make you uncomfortable, but I'm going to risk it. Plus, I'm sure you understand that the tough questions have to be asked. It isn't a make or break situation, just a heads up for what can be expected. When you think about your decades of future with Jeff, does it involve marriage, children and grandchildren?"

Why was comfort such a fleeting feeling? Vicki took a moment, having to grasp around in her mind for something to say after being thrown off balance. It really was better being on the other side of the interview. "Uh... well, we've never really talked about marriage, but we talked about children once. This was earlier in our relationship, before we had moved in together, where we laid our cards on the table, as Jeff put it. We decided that it was too early to say we definitely would or wouldn't try to have children, because you don't know what surprises life has in store for you. But we also know that we're on the older side of the under fifty crowd, so we don't even know if we could or couldn't. Add in that most children don't tend to take much of a liking to me and-"

"You shouldn't worry about that," Sam said, cutting her off. "Don't take into account how other people's children react to you because it's a totally different experience when it's your own child. I think it's a little silly to try and extrapolate the experience of limited time with other people's kids into something that can influence your decision whether or not to have one or two of your own. To clarify, I'm not trying to call _you_ silly, just the idea."

"No, yeah, I understand. I wish I had a better answer for you, but all I can say is that I hadn't ever given much consideration to having kids. But, I also hadn't ever really planned on finding a guy that I wanted to marry like I did in Jeff." Vicki stopped, eyes widening a little bit. "And I hadn't planned on that thought going public before I had come to grips with it."

"I have to ask, with you seeing a future together with Jeff, hadn't you thought about marriage?"

"Only in a 'I wonder what it would be like?' kind of way," Vicki said, shrugging. "You know those couples that get engaged but never actually get married? That seemed like a good future to me. There's commitment, but nothing involving ceremony and vowing." She stopped for a second, the daydream she liked to fall into every now and again running through her mind. "But now I see multiple rings on my vena amoris... uh, ring finger. God, you are a _deft_ conversationalist!"

Sam smiled at her. "I don't think I can take that much credit in this instance, but it comes with the psychologist territory."

"You're in psychology? Jeff seems to have omitted that little detail."

"I've found that people tend to speak to psychologists a little differently than they do other people, same as people speak to you differently on and off the record. As a result I've asked my friends not to tell people they're introducing me to that I'm a psychologist because otherwise I don't actually get to know a person, I get to know the person they want me to know, and who wants that? I hope this doesn't change anything because I've found you more open than I could have ever expected."

"No, no, it won't. Of course, going into this conversation I didn't see myself married in the future. Given enough time with you, I think I might end up seeing myself with 2.4 children. I'd run for the hills, but I love Jeff so much I'm willing to risk it and _what_ did I just imply?" Good lord! What the hell had happened to her? This was like a different, even more embarrassing version of her usual foot-in-mouth syndrome!

"I think you implied that you're willing to risk the conversation with me, but there may have been willing to have children with Jeff subtext."

Picking up her empty glass, Vicki stared at it while she spoke. "I've had two drinks over the past few hours, so not to accuse you of anything, but did you slip me something or am I just losing my mind?"

"You wouldn't believe what happens to the brain when a person is in love. It can play havoc, and I think we can chalk some of this conversation up to just that. And no, I did not slip anything in your drink. I only do that to patients who don't like to talk," she added with a wink.

"Great," Vicki mumbled, "now I only have myself to blame for this verbal fiasco." Feeling a hand slip into hers from behind, she turned her head to find Jeff smiling at her.

"You two have been talking awhile and my ears have been burning. Do I have you to thank for that, or do I just have naturally warm ears this afternoon?"

Sam answered him, though Vicki wasn't sure what she would have put forth as an answer anyway. "I have somebody very interesting to talk to and you think I'm going to waste my time with her discussing somebody I've known most of my life? Think again, Jeff. No, we've had an enlightening conversation on the effects of love on the brain and how it messes with our ability to think and speak, as well as some discussion on what we think the future may hold."

Vicki smiled at him as his eyes went back and forth between her and Sam, finally landing on Sam. "You're not scaring her by leading the conversation where you want it to go with hidden conversational clues and Jedi mind tricks, are you?"

"Jeff," Vicki said quietly, shaking her head at him. "Do you really think one of the people closest to you would do something like that? We were conversing, that's all. It's nice to find somebody to talk to in a situation like this where you can put things out there and feel safe when doing so."

"And really, how many times do I have to tell you that I didn't take Jedi mind tricks in college? That was a required class for psychiatry, not psychology."

"Fine, fine. I know when I'm wrong, infrequently as it happens." He pointed at Sam. "You keep being nice. I know where you sleep and am very familiar with the legal ways to make you suffer. Believe me, I've done the research."

After a quick peck on her cheek, he walked off, disappearing around a corner. "I wish I'd had the option to take a class on Jedi mind tricks." Vicki smiled at Sam. "A class like that might have taken a little bit of the tedium out of school."

"I agree. I also feel that we've come to a natural conclusion in the conversation, so I'm going to sum things up, as is a habit of mine. Not because I'm a psychologist," she said, shrugging, "but because I've got a few quirks, as do we all. You see a long future with Jeff, and vociferously fought for that, now possibly including a wedding ring and maybe even a child, depending on the interpretation of the sentence."

"Is that what happened in our conversation?"

"Pretty much."

"I'm going to go get another drink."

* * *

><p>Following Jeff into a bedroom, Vicki closed the door quietly and exhaled a sigh of relief. Five hours of party behind them and this was the first time since they had arrived that they were alone. Collapsing into his arms, she let him hold her up for a second before standing under her own power again and wrapping her arms around him. "I know that it's good to finally meet your sister and friends, considering how long we've been dating, but doing so many at once is exhausting. They're all very nice, especially Beth, and I really liked Sam despite the fact that she now knows things about me I barely know. You're lucky that I only have one friend. It's sad, but it works for me."<p>

"It's not sad for me, and I do consider that a lucky break, no matter how good I am at winning friends over. How is that you only have one friend, though? I know that you haven't lived in Gotham even a full year yet, but still, a lot of people like to take a first year in a new place and use it to get to know some people."

"I have gotten to know some people, starting with you, Bruce and a few people from work. The _Gazette_ is a big reason why I don't have a big group of friends like this. Actually, that's only partially true, because I've never had a big group of friends like this. I've always been very focused on what I've wanted, which as a kid was to become a journalist, and when I became a journalist I wanted to be the best journalist there was. It takes a lot of work and sacrificing of free time to be the best, and free time is generally friend time. But I've gotten pretty damn close to my goal, so I think it's been worth it. I'm the best at the _Gazette_, and the _Gazette_ is a becoming a top notch newspaper again, which is a rare thing anymore."

"Soooo... where does that mean you rank?"

"Rank?"

"Like, are you top fifty in the country? Top ten? Five?"

Raising an eyebrow, Vicki poked him lightly in the side. "You can't quantify a journalist's work and then rank it."

"How about counting the awards? And to make things more interesting, how about counting the awards of people that have won them for multiple stories, not just one hit wonders."

"Is this really how you want to spend this precious time together before we're out there in the jungle of your friends again?" He nodded, leaving her confused. "Why are you so interested in this?"

"Because I want to brag about just how good of a journalist you are, except I don't actually know how good you are outside of the high quality articles you write." There was a moment of silence, and Vicki was going to interject but Jeff beat her to the punch. "Wait, that sounds bad. What I mean is that I know you're very good, but as a sports junkie I like to compare good things to other good things and rank the good things, thus I want to compare you to other good journalists. Furthermore, since there is a way to quantify quality journalism, which, yes, is obviously going to be a subjective thing, we have a way of determining the best. So, you wanna start naming names?"

"Fine!" she said, throwing her hands up as she took a few steps back from him. "Off the top of my head, I guess I'd have to say the current top five are Lois Lane, Michael T. Garner, Tom Campbell, Rose Post and Kris Collins. Honorable mention goes to Ron Troupe. And that's based not only on number of awards but impact as well. Those are the best of the best."

"The only name on that list I know is Lois Lane. While I respect what she's done in the past, hasn't she basically disappeared into the ether since her husband disappeared in the bombings and she got fired from The Daily Planet?"

"Hardly. She writes for the Smallville_ Ledger_, which is admittedly small but she makes a meal out of what they give her. There's also Perry White's _Weekly_, which gives her a lot to work with. She published an amazing piece early this year that effectively eviscerated Intergang, a crime syndicate based in Metropolis, by publicizing its international gun running activities, and she's actually writing better now than when she was right after the bombings, which when you lose your husband and partner, makes sense. So yes, she is still the best, which reminds me, there should be a new piece up by her today. Have me check that when we get home, ok?"

"I will. So where are you on the list? Just below?"

"No, not really. Everybody on that list has had a huge social impact. I have two Kerth Awards, a National Journalism Award and the Tom Renner Award from IRE, which means I've done pretty well for myself over the years. I have awards, but I don't have _the_ award, the Pulitzer, and I haven't had that impact. Some, yes, but nowhere near what they've had. Gun to my head, I guess I'd say... oh, what the hell, why not top fifty?"

"I don't think that's nearly high enough from what I've read. It isn't just _any_ journalist that has people try to kill them for their work." Leaning over and kissing her softly, he wrapped his arm around hers. "And now, we go back out to the party."

"Feels like kind of a wasted break," Vicki mumbled, taking a moment to frown before she had to paste on a happy smile. She really did like all the people she was meeting, but the sooner the party was over, the sooner she could let her face relax. Maybe Jeff would give her a massage when they got home later. Definitely a good idea, that one. She deserved a massage after a day like this, whether she liked everybody or not.

* * *

><p>"Goodnight, Sam! It was nice to meet you!" Vicki called out to her and gave one last wave as the other woman walked out the door. That was it. The last person had officially left the party except for her, Jeff and one of the people that lived in the house. Beth and Jeff were walking Sam to her car, which left her a moment to relax. As if all her bones had melted, she flopped down on the couch, as splayed out as much as the space would allow her to, and let her eyes slide closed. Hearing the door open again, then close a second later, she made no move to get up. What kind of birthday party lasted eight hours? People had kind of trickled away after about the five hour mark, but the majority had been there past the seven hour mark. This hadn't been meeting the friends so much as immersion therapy, or perhaps a sink or swim experience. As far as she knew she had been treading water pretty well the whole day, but she'd get a much better feel for things once Jeff gave her the inside information.<p>

"You look exhausted."

"Smooth, Jeff," Beth answered, beating Vicki to the punch. "Just what every woman wants to hear."

"I always forget the dangers of telling women the truth. Hazardous to the health."

She felt her legs get lifted up and then let back down, coming to rest on top of Jeff's lap. "It's only hazardous to your health if you tell them the truths that they don't want to hear," Vicki said quietly. "The subjective truths like 'You're the most beautiful woman I've ever met' and 'You're the most awesome person that ever awesomed' are the truths we want and like to hear."

"Duly noted. Hey," he said quietly, poking her leg a couple times until she opened an eye to glare at him. "Now that it's just the two of us here with Beth while Chuck is out picking up Jenny and Liv, I think we should go ahead and tell Beth about what happened." He pointed to his right side in what she figured was an attempt to make sure she got what he was saying.

"I'm going to have to sit up for this, aren't I?" He shrugged and nodded, which caused her to sigh. "Fine, fine. I guess since I was the one that told you that you had to tell her, I should be supportive. The things I do for love," she said, sitting up.

"Hey, Beth! Could you come here for a second? Vicki and I would like to talk to you about something."

Coming over from the kitchen, Vicki watched as Beth came around the couch they were on and sat down in a chair off to their left. "What's up? You two planning on running off and eloping and hoping that I could come along and be your witness?"

"No." She saw him glance at her out of the corner of her eye, and couldn't help but smile a little bit for a second before schooling her features again, and she thought she saw him pick up on that. Why did she have to go and fall in love with somebody observant? Damn lawyers. "Actually, that's not a horrible idea, but no. You remember that business trip I had to go on at the beginning of the year when we didn't talk for about a month?"

"I recall that there was a business trip and that you went incommunicado while on that trip. Why?"

"Well, I never made it to that business trip. The night before I was supposed to leave I went on a date with Vicki and after dinner we went back to her apartment. When inside, she went to get some wine from the kitchen while I went to the bedroom. What we didn't know was that there were two men waiting for her in the bedroom. At the time she had lived in Gotham for about six months, and in that time she'd made some enemies. They sent goons, and when I walked into the bedroom they stabbed me twice in my right side and knocked me unconscious."

Vicki watched as Jeff lifted up his shirt and showed Beth the scars. She continued the story as he did so. "Once I'd gotten the wine, I walked to the room, but stopped because Jeff was lying down on the bed and looked liked he was asleep. I was confused, which is why I stopped, and then I spotted the blood stain that was spreading underneath him. I retreated back into my living room and called 911, but couldn't wait for police to get there. If I had left they would have slit Jeff's throat and gotten away. So I went back to the bedroom and fought them, with skills I wasn't aware I had, and knocked them both out." One of these days she might actually get around to telling Jeff that she had killed one of the thugs. "All the authorities came, he was taken to the hospital and patched up. He was comatose for about a week after the surgery, but obviously he woke up."

"She saved my life, Beth, and on top of that nursed me back to health. I had trouble doing some things for myself once I was let out of the hospital, but Vicki was at the house every day, getting me things I needed but never coddling me. She always insisted that I do the work to recover. Vicki is why, months after almost dying of stab wounds, I'm here like nothing ever happened. The last time you came to my place was during my recovery and I thought about telling you everything, but didn't want to scare you. I was just lucky that you didn't want to do more than sit and talk because those two things and walking were the extent of what I was able to do at the time."

Jeff stopped with that, apparently having nothing more to say, and Vicki didn't have anything to add, which led to the heavy silence that had filled the room. Beth just sat and stared at the floor for a few minutes, leaving them both to do the same, if not stare at other objects. Abruptly Beth stood up, took a couple steps over to the couch and sat down next to Vicki, looking her straight in the eye for a second before pulling her into a tight hug. "Thank you," Beth whispered. "Thank you so much. I'll never be able to express how much I love you for what you did for my brother, but the best I can do is thank you. No matter what happens between you two, you will always be welcome here, but my preference is that you're in his life for a long time. I've known you for a total of eight hours and it's no stretch to say you're one of the best things that has happened to him. I know I shouldn't say this, but my emotions are a bit wild after hearing all that, so I'm going to say it anyway: I want you to marry him, have kids with him and always, _always_ be a part of this family. We would all be the better for it, not just him."

Vicki was a bit overwhelmed by what Beth said, hugging her back and whispering, "I want the same thing." And she meant it. She wasn't just playing into what was happening, because to be a part of a family like that was a life she would grasp with both hands and never let go. She knew right then that this was the kind of thing people look for all their lives and rarely find, and letting that go would be a huge mistake. The hug went on for a little while after the whispers before Beth finally let go, wiping away tears in each eye. Standing up again, Vicki watched her take a step over and stand in front of Jeff, fists on her hips as she stared down at him with one of those motherly glares that let a person know just how badly they'd screwed up. Vicki was impressed that Jeff didn't wither at all under such a stare. It must've been something he'd grown up with.

"You're totally healed?"

"I am. Only difference is now I come with sexy scars. I hear chicks dig 'em, though Vicki has been strangely immune."

With no warning, Beth swatted Jeff upside the head, hard. "And don't think that I don't want to do more right now, but I'm still in shock and trying not to break down into tears because it happened and tears of joy because you're ok!"

"First, ow," he said, rubbing where she'd hit him. "Second... well, are we ok?"

"We'll be ok after I whack you upside the head a couple more times. I'm going with you getting three whacks upside the head because you didn't tell me about this for three months, and you're damn lucky that I don't dole out even more punishment than that." With that, Beth walked out of the room, and Vicki placed a hand on Jeff's arm.

"Told you that she was going to smack you upside the head. Some vigor in that swing, too." She ran a hand through his hair lightly over the spot where she'd hit him. "Didn't get you _too_ hard, did she?"

"With every passing day I get happier that I am the older sibling. She's always had a strange sense of punishment when I did something stupid, which was more easily defended by being an older brother. Now she has to catch me by surprise, though I should have seen this one coming."

"Well, when we get back home I can nurse you back to health again."

"I like the sound of _that_."

"You know what I liked the sound of? That thing..." Vicki caught herself, stopping before she said that the running away and getting married Beth had suggested sounded like something she could be on board with. What the hell was wrong with her? It felt like somebody had injected the word marriage into her brain and now it was stuck in her thoughts. This situation was exactly why she'd always had radar for this type of relationship. Now she was stuck with feelings she hadn't planned on having about a guy that wasn't supposed to last more than six months. All she had wanted was somebody she could get along with for a little while that would provide some intimate contact and no strings tied to her heart. That had failed miserably, and Vicki hadn't realized just _how_ miserably until that damn conversation with Sam earlier. She had known she loved him; she hadn't realized how much she loved him. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to believe Jeff about Sam learning Jedi mind tricks in college. "I blame Sam for this," she grumbled.

"Me too, but then that's been a fall back answer for me since the age of ten. What's wrong?"

"I just... have you ever had a conversation with somebody where you go in thinking you're dead set on things being one way and come out of it not only not being convinced of that anymore, but finding yourself straddling the fence and maybe even falling onto the other side of it?"

"That does sound like a conversation with Sam." She laid down and put her legs in his lap again and he started rubbing her calves, which helped her relax a little bit. It certainly felt nice after a long day of standing. Plus, he had _great_ hands. "Tell me what's going on. We'll do that whole figuring it out together thing that couples do."

Staring at the ceiling, she sucked on her bottom lip a second before answering. "When I pictured our future together, and I've now done that a scary amount of times, we were always together but never married. It's not that I didn't want to be married, it's just that the thought never occurred to me because getting married was not something I planned on doing. I've lived a pretty transient lifestyle, moving from paper to paper for about fifteen years, and I didn't know when that was going to stop. I don't ever know how long I'm going to be somewhere so that directly affects how I live my life. But for about the past eight hours every time I think about the future I've got rings on my vena amoris, and I blame it all on Sam because she used Jedi mind tricks to get in my head and pull that stuff out into the open, just like you said. Yes, it's irrational, and no, I don't really mean it, but I needed to have a little rant and there, I've now ranted."

Jeff was quiet a second before saying, "You sure you got it all out? I'm not going to catch a second round of rant in the middle of what I say, am I?"

"No, I'm good now. Relatively, anyway."

"Ok. Know what I say to all that? Let's not over think things. You say you see rings in our future. I also see rings in our future. Actually, I see whatever future makes you happy, which I'm pretty sure includes me, so I say we use my sister's idea."

"Your sister's idea? You mean the one where she had us running off to elope?" Vicki chuckled a little, letting her eyes slide closed as she relaxed. "If so, I vote we do so in Las Vegas. I've always wanted to go to Vegas, and never have."

"I think it's a really good idea."

It took a second for Vicki to comprehend that Jeff wasn't joking, and when she did her eyes shot open. "A-Are you proposing?"

"Poorly, so far, but I can fix that." Vicki sat up as he turned and faced her, smiling. "I want you with me as long as I live, Vicki. We've been dating for six months and I feel more strongly about you than I thought I would feel about anybody. It's been an eventful six months, to say the least, but if we can make it through stab wounds and convalescing then we can make it through anything and everything, cliché as that sounds. Point is, I believe in us, and I know you do to. So let's do this. No bells, no whistles, just you, me, Beth and a guy in Vegas that can marry us twenty minutes after we step off of a plane. But now I've rambled without saying what I wanted to say." He slid off the couch, dropping to one knee. He took her left hand in his, and kissed her ring finger like he had in the car earlier. "Marry me, Vicki."

It took Vicki a second to shake off her shock, but it didn't take half that long for her to realize that while fast, she wanted a life with Jeff Powers, and this was just like the rest of their relationship since their fourth date: spontaneous not to be spontaneous, but spontaneous because it felt right. Grinning ear to ear, she nodded. "Yes. _Hell_ yes, I'll marry you!" She flung herself at him, attacking his lips with her own for a minute until they had to come up for air, and she saw the same goofy grin on him that she was sure was on her face as well.

He took her hand in his and pulled her up onto his feet as he rose, gently pulling her along. "Beth! Hey, Beth! Where'd you go?"

Emerging from around a corner, she smiled at them, apparently noticing their states of mind. "What's gotten into you two?"

"You remember when you asked if we were going to run away to elope and take you with us as our witness? Well, we are. A flight to Vegas and somebody telling me I can kiss the bride is in the immediate future. Are you coming or not?"

"_What_? Are you serious?"

"Yes!"

"But why Vegas?"

"Aside from Vicki never having gone before, we can be married right off the plane rather than waiting seventy-two hours from when we get a marriage license here and waiting until morning in Vermont. Now, do you want to come or not?"

"Of course I do! Let me call Chuck and tell him that I won't be here when he get's back with the girls and then change into something a little more wedding appropriate, even if it is in Vegas. Five minutes." Beth jogged off, leaving them standing there. Five minutes later, after a series of kisses Vicki doubted she would ever forget, Beth found them again, dressed and looking like it wasn't after nine o'clock at night after a long day of having friends over. She was also holding a bag. "If you two are getting married, you're doing it the right way." Pulling something out of her bag, she held it out to Vicki. "This is our mother's antique hair clip, which just happens to be blue. Borrowed, blue and old all in one. As far as new, well, we'll find something in Vegas."

"We met, like, eight hours ago," Vicki said, half smiling. "I can't believe that you're this excited that your brother is going to marry somebody you, for all intents and purposes, don't know."

"Sure, I wish he'd have brought you by a little sooner, but I assume you'll be around a lot more now. You saved his life and nursed him back to health. You two live together and make each other happy. I can very easily see that you love him and that he _really_ loves you. What more does an overprotective sister need to know than that?"

* * *

><p>"By the power vested in me, by the state of Nevada and the great city of Las Vegas, I now pronounce you husband and wife." The man looked at Jeff and nodded towards her. "Go ahead and kiss your bride."<p>

He did just that, and at 2:42am, Vicki Vale found herself becoming Vicki Vale Powers.


	14. Chapter 14

- Chapter 14

"Shoulders are out, torso, legs... your baby girl is here, Mrs. Kent!"

Relaxing back in the large tub, Lois closed her eyes and let the comfort of the heated water wash over her. She couldn't help but smile as a second later her daughter was lifted out of the water and placed against her chest. Closing her eyes for a second, she took a couple calming breaths before looking down. Moving slowly, she gently wrapped her arms around her new daughter, pulling her close. "Well, hi," she said quietly, unable to help a smile stealing across her face as a healthy cry burst out from her daughter. "So you're a girl, huh? First time I've gotten to be surprised like this. Yeah, I hear you. You've got good lungs, which I like. That said, it's three in the morning, so I hope this isn't a preview of things to come. If it is, well, I guess that's fair warning." Why did she always babble right after her children were born? It had to be the exhaustion combined with bliss and an overwhelming new love. It was the only plausible explanation she could think of, because she'd never babbled before going through labor, at least not in _her_ opinion. "We're in the same boat here, girly: wet, naked and tired after five seriously uncomfortable hours, not to mention the last two or three months where your living space got really cramped. Trust me, I could tell just how cramped it got." She couldn't take her eyes off of her. She needed a name, though. She hadn't really thought about names because she had been so busy getting everything ready, and it had always been something that Clark brought up. He had always been so excited about names. There had been a girl's name he'd really liked before they'd decided on Cassidy... what had that been...

"Mrs. Kent?" Blinking she looked up. "We're going to take her, get her cleaned up, weigh her and all that, ok?"

"Yeah, sure," she said, giving her baby a quick peck on the side of her head before she was taken away. They must have cut the cord when she was engrossed and babbling. "Put me down for twenty bucks on her being over eight pounds."

"You think so?"

"Sure felt like it. My other two were just below and just over seven pounds, and she is definitely bigger than they were." Lois let her eyes slide closed for a moment, taking a second to rest until somebody started poking and prodding at her stomach. Opening one eye, she watched as the junior midwife pulled her hands away. She was still amazed she had chosen a birthing center with midwives instead of a hospital, but it had made sense, hippie-dippy as it made her feel. There were fewer invasive questions and no blood taken from the baby, which meant she didn't have to request that they don't take blood on religious grounds. Clark had always handled that because Lois always found that she had a hard time pretending to be religious, even when necessary in a situation like this.

"Are you feeling any contractions yet, Mrs. Kent?"

"No, not..." She trailed off and grimaced a little bit. "There it is. Thanks for getting that started."

"Why I'm here, Mrs. Kent. You've got to deliver the placenta or else you and your husband will never have the chance to consider a fourth."

"My husband..." Lois closed her eyes and pushed down the sadness. This wasn't a night for that. She refused to be sad any more than necessary, and she would be sad whenever she had the time to be sad, but for now she was going to be happy that she had a new daughter. "My husband and I worked in Metropolis at the time of the bombings, and he's been missing since then. Before you stumble over yourself to apologize, don't. You didn't know, and I know he's out there somewhere. Believe it or not, he has a history of amnesia episodes, so I'll find him."

"I'm going to apologize anyway. I'm sorry that he wasn't able to be here for this, but I admire you for being so hopeful. Let's get you out of the tub." Taking a second to stretch her legs, Lois stood up with minimal help and took a towel, pulling it around her shoulders as she walked to the bed a few feet away. Sitting down gingerly and with no small amount of wincing as another contraction hit, she got herself adjusted so that she was both comfortable and accessible for the midwives.

"Well, Mrs. Kent, you were right. She tips the scales at nine pounds, two ounces. Does she have a name yet?"

The midwife bent down and placed her in the crook of Lois's arm, and suddenly the name Clark had liked so much came back to her. "Yeah," she said. "Her name is Devon. Devon Marie Kent." She pushed the blanket out of her daughter's face, smiling as she wriggled a little bit. "Your dad loved the name Devon, and I think that because your brother and sister have names I originally suggested, he should get to name you. So you're Devon, ok? If you're tired you can tell me how much you like it later, but don't wait too long." Yawning, Lois shook it off. "You sleep. I'll knock out your placenta, catch a quick nap and then when you wake up, we'll see just how much Lane and Kent is in you."

* * *

><p>Reaching for her alarm clock, Lois hit it a couple times but the sound didn't stop. No, not the alarm clock. Crying baby. As the origin of the sound dawned on her sleep hazed mind, she opened her eyes, checking the clock she had just walloped. 3:27am. Seemed like a good enough time to start her day. The four hours of sleep, all in a row, was a rare luxury these days. She would take that any night she could get it, no questions asked. Throwing off the sheet that was covering her, she swung her feet off the bed and stood up, taking a second to stretch before trying to work a kink out of her shoulder as she walked across the bedroom to Devon's crib. Stifling a yawn with the back of her hand, she leaned over the edge of the crib and scooped up her wailing baby. "Ok, ok. Mom's awake and most definitely paying attention. You slept for just over four hours, so let's check and see why you're upset. My guess is you need a change and early morning snack."<p>

Confirming her suspicions about the diaper, she changed that, which curbed the crying. Walking out of her room and into the living room, she sat down in her rocking chair, which was extremely comfortable and very useful at lulling Devon to sleep. It was something she had let Martha buy her since losing the old one when the house had been burned down. This one was an upgrade over that one, not when it came to attached memories but definitely when it came to comfort. Adjusting her shirt, she started Devon nursing without much hassle. Rocking back and forth slowly, she watched Devon a moment before looking away, starting her mental list of things that needed to be done for the day. The full list currently consisted of getting Devon back to sleep after she ate, working out, showering, breakfast, occupying the children, lunch, dropping off Jacob at a birthday party, getting the girls to nap, napping herself, dinner, picking up Jacob and then getting everybody to sleep for the night. A little busier than a normal day, but not too bad. Then it dawned on her what the date was, and she smiled. "It's been a blur, but do you know what today is, Devon? Today you're officially one month old! Can you believe it? You've been out here in the noisy, busy world a whole month now, and you know what? I think it's working for you so far." Devon moved away from her breast and Lois lifted her up, adjusting her shirt and grabbing a rag to toss on her shoulder before rubbing small circles across Devon's back until she burped. With a quick inspection to make sure she was clean, Lois stood up and walked back into her bedroom, laying Devon down and swaddling her with a blanket. Eyes all ready drooping, it didn't take long for her to fall asleep, which Lois appreciated greatly. Getting her back to sleep could turn into a lengthy ordeal.

Pulling off her sleeping shirt, she tossed it on the bed before digging around in a drawer until finding her last clean sports bra, getting it on before grabbing a hair tie off of her dresser and pulling her hair into a sloppy ponytail. After a moment of having to look around, which consisted of doing her best to make absolutely no noise while stepping over and around various objects, she found and put on her workout shorts, and with the baby monitor in hand walked outside into a grassy courtyard between buildings. She spent the next hour going through a combination of old martial arts moves she had learned during her time traveling with her dad and more recent training exercises Chloe had shown her after they had begun training together. She couldn't resume the free running she had done after Cassidy was born and definitely didn't have space in the apartment for exercise equipment, so she had decided to go full bore through training exercises. It wasn't quite the cardio workout she wanted, especially with no sparring partner to work with, but it was slowly getting her back into shape, with slowly being the keyword. Her body wasn't snapping back nearly as quickly as it had before. It was probably due as much to having a kid in her late thirties as it was to a lack of true cardio. At least she wouldn't be rusty should she need her martial arts skills.

Walking back inside, Lois allowed herself a quick check on each child to make sure they were all still sleeping peacefully before undressing and jumping into the shower, her current favorite place to think. It was hard for her to believe how she was living her life now. It hadn't even been a year ago that she'd had a husband and two children in a suburban house outside a major city. Now there was another child but she was missing the husband and living in an apartment in a farm town. The only thing she had time for was taking care of those children, which was rewarding, but made for a very focused life that seemed to be devoid of people that weren't her children. Well, that wasn't entirely true; Martha was always good for a conversation when she needed contact with another adult, and she was the only reason that Lois could pull off the hours she was currently pulling. She took the kids every Wednesday, which allowed Lois between eight to ten hours of sleep that kept her going through the other six days. Admittedly she would be dragging on Tuesdays, but they had done it three times and it was working so far. Plus, it seemed her body was finally adjusting to her sleeping pattern, which helped.

For the first time she was planning on taking every day of maternity leave that she was allowed. She had to. She definitely hadn't had the luxury of going back after a week, like she had when Jacob was born, or even after a month, like she had with Cassidy. She didn't have Clark as a fallback anymore. It hadn't escaped her that she was treating the situation the same as she had when she was six years old and her mom had died, the General leaving Lucy in her care. She wouldn't let herself fail this time.

Finished with her shower, Lois dried off and got dressed quietly, feeling fortunate that Devon was still sleeping. Hopefully this was a preview of things to come, though Lois knew that it would still be a little while until she slept through the night, or at least woke up at night and didn't cry. Heading out to the kitchen, Lois started making herself breakfast, getting some bacon frying while pulling out some eggs and tortillas. With the bacon well on its way, she scrambled the eggs and warmed up the tortillas, having decided to treat herself to some simple breakfast tacos. Usually it was just toast, maybe with some jelly on it, but this was turning out to be a pretty uneventful morning, and that was suiting her just fine. She could use a dozen or so of these, at least, but felt lucky that she was even getting this one. The last one she'd had was before Devon had been born, maybe even before Cassidy or Jacob had been born. Maybe, once there were children involved, there was no longer such a thing as an uneventful morning. Maybe they just needed to be older. Probably old enough to no longer live at home, which was a long time from now and not something Lois felt prepared to delve too far into.

Starting in on her breakfast, the big question that kept encroaching on her mind was how she was going to keep this up. She was going to have to go back to work once the twelve weeks were up, and even though she only had to be in the office three days a week, it was still going to be crazy. Perry had been extremely accommodating when Jacob was born not only by allowing them to bring him into the office, but giving them their own office, something they had been long overdue to get anyway. They had still used the in-house daycare, especially once Cassidy had come along, but she didn't work in an office with him anymore. She was definitely going to have to find out what Charlie did and didn't allow as far as children in the workplace, and which daycare in Smallville was the best. God, how was she going to broach _that_ topic with Martha? Lois was sure that she was expecting to continue as daytime care giver for her grandchildren, but she was really starting to slow down and Lois didn't feel right dumping three young children on her, or even two anymore once Jacob started school in the fall. Not a conversation any woman wants to have with her mother-in-law, even if she regarded her more as a surrogate mother. 'Thanks for offering to watch the kids but you're getting too old. And yes, I would like to point and laugh when you can't find the glasses that are on top of your head!'

If only this was a problem she could dump on future Lois. Future Lois already had a lot of things she was going to face, and despite her best efforts to stay positive, with every day that passed it looked like one of those things was going to include teaching her children about their powers. She hadn't lost hope that Clark would come home, but it was getting easier to accept with each day that went by that him not being there was the way things were going to be. It had been almost ten months since she had last seen him, ten months since something had happened to him to take him away from his family.

Finishing her second breakfast taco, Lois got up and dumped her plate in the sink before walking into her bedroom. Jacob and Cassidy would be up within the next hour, in all likelihood, so she didn't have very long to get something done before her time was devoted to keeping them entertained and on the calmer side of wild. Pulling her laptop out of its carrying case, Lois decided to check on Devon, and found her to be staring up at her when she peeked into the crib. That was surprising. Usually if her eyes were open and nobody was there with her there was some serious shrieking going on. "Hi, Girly," Lois said, smiling at her. Holding her laptop between her legs, she reached in and picked Devon up, getting her settled with one arm before grabbing her laptop with the other and walking back out to the living room. "You're just full of surprises today, aren't you? Letting your mom get four hours of sleep was very kind, and then to top it off you wake up being peaceful!" Lowering herself down onto the couch, Lois put her laptop on the coffee table and opened it, focusing on Devon once more while it booted up.

"So how are you today? I think that you're doing well. You're a month old, you've got a full head of hair and I think you're about two or three weeks away from your first real smile. I also bet you're thinking about how your mom never seems to shut up when you're around her. It's ridiculous, isn't it? But I have news for you: if you're anything like me, you're going to be the same way. There's no point to silence, so why let there be any? It's crazy talk for a woman with three kids to dislike silence, I know, but it's how I operate. We'll just have to see if it's how you operate, too." Adjusting Devon against her shoulder, Lois leaned forward so she could work a little bit, too. Bringing up her files on the bombings and her research into Mr. Stanton, she started humming quietly, something she had discovered by accident worked very well at calming her youngest. One of their first nights back home from the birthing center Devon had been extremely averse to sleeping, or even to being anything but what Lois interpreted as upset at the world for it not being as awesome as she had been led to believe. Mostly to keep herself calm Lois had started humming, starting at the beginning of her favorite Whitesnake album. By the time she had been halfway through _Here I Go Again, _Devon was asleep. It had been, during her entire one month of life, one of three or four things that could be called upon to calm her down. _Definitely_ her daughter.

And never let it be said that almost forty years later Whitesnake wasn't still contributing.

If only her investigation into who Mr. Stanton was and if he had, in fact, been behind the bombings was going as well as her time with Devon. Nobody had taken responsibility for the bombings, which was unheard of. People had leapt at it being one terrorist organization or another, but instead of somebody boasting that they had struck a blow against the United States and its profligacy there had been nothing but denials and a severe lack of proof pointing at anybody. Lois hadn't hesitated in feeding the name Mr. Stanton straight to Chief Sawyer, but it hadn't helped. Nobody was talking, and the hunches that it had been whoever Mr. Stanton was had stayed exactly that: hunches. If she would have been able to devote herself entirely to figuring things out she might have had more answers than the none she currently had, but her life had dictated that she focus elsewhere. First, trying to keep life as close to normal as possible for Jacob and Cassidy, then making a new life in Smallville and finally welcoming Devon into the world and having to put that before all else. Even Lois Lane Kent only had twenty-four hours in a day to operate, no matter how much she wished she had more, or at least wished she didn't need to sleep.

It wasn't long before Lois found that trying to work with only one free hand was getting ridiculous. Getting up and walking just a few feet, Lois sat down slowly onto the floor next to a laid out blanket. Gently placing Devon down on it, she pulled over a toy that would hopeful keep her distracted, basically a mobile designed for the floor instead of a crib. Scooting back over to the coffee table, Lois grabbed her laptop before moving back over next to Devon, leaning back against the wall so she could focus on her limited investigation until Jacob and Cassidy got up, or at least until Devon got bored and started getting fussy. Her peace lasted roughly twenty minutes, which is when Devon started getting fussy. After a diaper check, she found that she wanted to nurse, so Lois continued working while Devon ate, having perfected her breast feeding multitasking abilities with Jacob and Cassidy. If nothing else, Lois found that Devon reaped the rewards of being a third baby, getting all the little perks out of Lois figuring out how to work the kinks out of most of the things that hadn't gone smoothly with one or both of her previous babies.

"Mommy?"

And there was one of her former babies now. "Good morning, Cass. How'd you sleep?" Her response was rubbing at an eye while she walked over, proceeding to plunk down onto the floor next to her. "I see you're having one of your quiet mornings today. Are you hungry?" Off Cassidy's nod, Lois did the same. "Ok. As soon as Devon is done eating I'll start on breakfast for you. What sounds good?"

"Jelly toast."

"Jelly toast it is. We'll make a little extra so that when Jacob gets up he has something to eat, too."

* * *

><p>Two meals later, and after having dropped Jacob off at his party, Lois was lying down in bed with Cassidy. She was curled up right into her body, Lois drawing small circles across her arm as her head rested on her hand. Moments like these had always been special to her, but since Clark had disappeared she had put a premium on time with the children, which struck her as odd sometimes considering how much children time as she was getting. But if something could happen to him, something that kept him away from his family, she knew that there were dozens, if not hundreds, of situations that could take her away from her children. Even now, when she wasn't chasing down stories, there was a worry in the back of her mind that somebody that felt she had wronged him or her in the past was plotting to do something because Superman was no longer around to protect her.<p>

She could tell that people were really starting to adjust to a Metropolis without Superman. Maybe it had been the shock of him disappearing out of the blue, but crime rates were beginning to spike to 400% of what they had been with Superman protecting the city. Despite the fact that she had lost faith in the city, she didn't want to see it turn into a version of what Gotham had been before Bruce had donned the cape and cowl.

Noting Cassidy's slow, even breathing, Lois gently removed herself from the bed and exited the room, leaving the door open a little bit just in case. Stretching her arms over her head as she walked, she padded into her bedroom and after a quick glance at the napping Devon, who had gone down with only two Whitesnake songs, Lois laid down on her bed, cracking her neck before letting her head rest on the pillow. An hour or so of napping would do nicely, and set her up for the rest of the day. As her eyes slid closed, Lois caught the sound of her cell phone ringing out in the living room, and noting the style of the ringing, decided that she should get up and take the call. She had assigned one type of ring to those calls from people important to her, one for her sources and another for everybody else. Jogging slowly out to the living room, she grabbed the phone off of the coffee table and saw that it was Perry. She tapped the screen and put the phone to her ear. "I should have expected your call today, Perry. You promised a month of no work calls and not a day more."

"There's a reason I never missed a deadline, Lois. How's the family doing?"

"We're all doing very well, thank you. Jacob's out partying with some friends and the girls are both conked out."

"It always amazes me how similar the lives of young children and college students sound. You sure they're still young?"

"Very," Lois said, shaking her head, "and you're going to give me nightmares with talk like that. First, because it would mean my kids were already old enough to be in college, and second because I remember what _I_ was like in college and that potential future for my children haunts me. I really am counting on Clark's genes offsetting mine."

"Obviously one has no effect on the other, but I don't see your genes taking a backseat to Kent's anymore than your voice did to his in your work together."

"Hope for the best, prepare for rebelliousness. Now, I enjoy talking about my kids as much as the next mom, but I doubt a conversation about what they may be like in the future is the reason you called." She heard him chuckle, and if she wasn't mistaken the din of voices in the background. "Where are you, Perry?"

"Some buddies of mine decided to get together for a few days. And that leads me into why I'm calling. One of my buddies is Martin Washington, editor of the New York_ Times_, and he asked me to call you because he wanted to speak to you, so here he is."

"Wait, what? Perry? Perry!" The editor of the New York_ Times_ wanted to talk to her? They'd spoken a few times before, once when Perry had introduced them at a conference years ago and then in passing at some awards banquets. This was supposed to be nap time, not random talking to big time news people time! Then she heard him say her name, forcing her to respond. "Marty, hi," she said, trying to make sure she sounded composed. "How are you doing?"

"Very well, thank you. You?"

"Surviving baby sleep depravation with flying colors." One of these days she was going to have to remember that she didn't have to mention children in every single conversation she had.

"I remember those days, and don't envy you a bit. So, over the last couple days with Perry I've been asking him about _Weekly_, that little project he's running and you've been keeping afloat with your top notch articles, notably that one about Intergang that got you nominated for another Kerth. I've also asked him about your current full time employer, and I quote Perry for the next part, 'in Podunk, Kansas where tractors fall out of the sky to scare drunks straight.' He says you're happy there, and I say that's bullshit. There's no way a woman that does such intense investigations can be happy in a town of forty thousand people writing for a paper with two percent of the circulation of the paper she should be writing for."

"I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you aren't saying I should still be writing for the_ Daily Planet_."

"Very observant. I should have stolen you away from Perry years ago, and now that I don't have him stopping me I've decided it's time for you to come write for a major metropolitan newspaper again. You'll work for the best newspaper in the world, be paid a ridiculous amount of money for a journalist and live in the greatest city in the world. And as an added bonus you would still get to moonlight for _Weekly_ because Perry wouldn't have agreed to call you on my behalf without that little nugget thrown in."

Lois smirked and sat down on the couch, putting her feet up on one end and letting her head rest on a pillow at the other. "If Perry hadn't thrown it in, I would have. Who would get first crack at my articles?"

"Whatever each of us assigned would stay with that publication, obviously. Any tips you get in your spare time would go to _Weekly_, and all tips you received while on the clock for me would be my jurisdiction."

"Jesus, I don't do THAT many pieces. Between the two of you and my kids I wouldn't have more than fifteen seconds a day to sleep!" She barely had mor than fifteen seconds a day to sleep right now, but that was neither here nor there. "That's not even the point! This whole conversation is moot, Marty, because I really am happy here in Smallville, and I'm not looking to move to a bigger publication. If I had wanted that I wouldn't have ever joined the team at the _Ledger_. It may not be all that impressive, but they do good work and I like being a part of that."

"I have no doubt about that." Lois could hear the extreme doubt in his words, but chose not to comment on it. "Obviously my big city and big money approach didn't work, so let me come from a different angle. You're happy where you are, but are you making a difference? I know that you have Perry's project to make an impact, but you do an article for him once a month. If you come work for me you'll be making a difference on a weekly basis, if not more often than that. I guarantee you would have so much award worthy material to choose from that you'd be competing with yourself for the Kerth this time next year instead of Telfair from the Washington_ Post_ and that woman from Gotham, Vale something or other. Maybe it's old age, but I can never remember her name despite the fact that I looked her up and she's won two Kerth Awards and the Renner."

"Vicki Vale," Lois said, staring up at the ceiling. "I've read her stuff a few times and she's really good. Her piece on the federal judges on the take in Gotham is something we haven't seen coming out of that city in... well, in as long as I can remember hearing news coming out of Gotham. Even with Batman there, she's the first journalist that seems to have the guts to take on the criminal element with any fervor. I'm shocked that we haven't heard about her getting assaulted half a dozen times. Batman must be keeping a special eye on her or something." Thinking about what she had just said, Lois wondered if Bruce really might be keeping an eye on Vicki Vale, maybe even working with her. She would have to ask him about that sometime.

"Believe me, I've looked into her, but Bruce Wayne himself told me at a fundraiser a few months ago that he'd add ten percent onto any offer I made her. That's something of a deterrent, and add in the fact that she got married recently and it seems she's set where she is." Bruce had gotten involved in something like that? The _Gazette_ editor must have made a special request about keeping her. Probably a smart move, from what Lois had read. "Anyway, that's not the point. I want you working for me, Lois, and I get the people I want. Would you do me a favor, keep things simple and say yes now? You obviously have Perry's blessing or else we wouldn't be talking. What more do you need?"

"First and foremost I'd need New York to be a lot closer to Smallville, Kansas. I have a life here, Marty, and my children have had ten years worth of insanity crammed into the past ten months. Picking them up and moving them not only to another part of the country but away from their grandmother, who takes care of them whenever I can't, is not the best idea."

"I know that there are a lot of details that would have to be pounded out because I moved my family a few times over the years. This would be a major life decision. But on a purely professional level, I know that you want to come here and do the best work of your career."

"My professional level has a lot less sway over me than it once did. If it were just me, would I be saying yes? Of course. We both know that. But that's not the case, and it never will be the case. I'm not going to dismiss the opportunity out of hand, but I'm also not going to give you false hope."

"As long as you're considering, I'm happy. I'll let you go now so you can give it some thought. Talk to you soon."

"Bye, Marty."

Staring at her phone, Lois chewed on the inside of her cheek for a second before pushing the offer she'd just gotten out of her head. It'd be a hell of a gig, writing for the New York_ Times_. She wouldn't love it the way she had the _Planet_, but still, it would be a challenge. It wasn't going to happen, but it was nice to know that people still wanted her. Setting the alarm on her phone, Lois put it down on the coffee table and allowed her eyes to slide closed. If she was lucky she'd still be able to get an hour of napping in before either of the girls woke up.

* * *

><p>Ushering Jacob and Cassidy inside, Lois kicked the door closed. Setting Devon's carrier down as she watched Jacob run off to his room to play with the party favors he'd received, she focused back on her youngest, unstrapping her from the carrier and pulling her out, getting her settled against her shoulder. "You just love a good car ride, don't you Devon? Don't think that I haven't noticed that it calms you right down. You may be my only child to respond to Whitesnake, but you're exactly like your brother and sister were as babies when it comes to car rides." Looking around as she walked into the living room, she didn't see Cassidy. "Cass?" she called out, looking around the room to make sure she hadn't missed her somewhere.<p>

"She's in here with me, mom!" Jacob called out, and Lois nodded, deeming that an all right place for her to be.

Walking back to the kitchen, she bounced Devon a little as she rested against her. "Well I don't know about you, Girly, but I could use a bite to eat. Making dinner for you requires very little effort on my part, but Cassidy decided to be picky earlier which meant I had _just_ enough time to get her fed before going to pick up Jacob. But that leaves your old lady out in the cold when it comes to food." Opening up the pantry, she frowned when all she found was various snack food items and some raisins. None of that would really do the trick to keep her hunger satiated for more than a little while. To tide her over until she could figure out something real, she grabbed a bag of tortilla chips and put it on the counter, biting into a few as she searched both refrigerator and freezer for something that was appealing. Before she found anything, though, Devon let out a plaintive wail, and after checking what time it was Lois realized that she was probably hungry. Knowing it would be a little while before she had the chance to cook anything for herself, Lois grabbed the bag of chips, taking them with her to where she could sit down in the living room, and after getting Devon going on her dinner, Lois dug into the chips.

For a day where she'd had to mobilize the children multiple times, this was definitely falling into the category of uneventful, which was just fine with her. New York_ Times_ offer aside, nothing had really happened. Now if only she could get the offer to go write for one of the best papers in the world out of her head, it would be a truly uneventful day. Unfortunately for her mind, she was itching to write something. She didn't even know if she was going to get to go to the Kerth awards, which would be a first. Despite playing it cool and acting like it was no big deal, having a panel of retired editors and her peers deem her work the best was addicting. It also didn't hurt that she'd always been a bit addicted to winning, too, like most sane members of humanity. With the awards only a month away, she wasn't sure how it could to happen. She didn't want to leave the kids with Martha for a few days, abdicating parental responsibility to go out and potentially be lavished with praise. A good lavishing was always nice, but she was coming to grips with the fact that she'd probably just have Perry accept the award on her behalf and have him drop it off the next time he passed through town to see her. It _would_ be nice to be there if she won and rub the award in the faces of all the people that thought she wasn't going to be any good after losing Clark.

Lois Lane 1, Nay sayers 0. Not that she was keeping count or anything.

Glancing down at Devon for a moment, Lois couldn't help a small smile, knowing that she had even proved something to herself during that investigation of Intergang. It was the first big investigation she had tackled since Clark had disappeared, as she'd attempted to avoid any articles that would compel her to take big risks. When she had received the initial tip and had run it by Perry, she'd known that it was an article she had to do. Being four months pregnant at the time had certainly made her aware that she was going to have to dial down the risk factors, but by the time the article was published two months later, Lois had proven to herself that she could do her best work without having to escape impending doom. She was very happy about that because it meant she could still do her best work while keeping herself safe to take care of her children. Now all she had to do was avoid being attacked by avenging mobsters and she was all set.

Reaching for another chip, she couldn't find one, and looking over noticed that the bag was empty. "Oh, that's just perfect, Lois," she said to herself, rolling her eyes. "Way to eat healthy. No wonder you're body isn't bouncing back like it did before." Pausing, she shook her head and sighed. "Let Mommy be a lesson to you, Devon: eating half a bag of chips in one sitting is _not_ good, no matter how tasty they are. Eat some fruit instead. Much better for you." Deciding not to give an infant a full lecture on why one shouldn't eat chips for dinner when there were fruits, vegetables and other assorted healthy foods available, Lois closed her eyes and took in the silence. When that lasted more than fifteen seconds, her eyes popped open, mom alarms sounding loudly in her head. "Jacob? Cassidy? What are you guys doing in there?"

"We're just playing, mom!"

The word _just_ seemed to have taken a whole new connotation these days when it came to her son, much like it had when she'd been his age and was playing with Lucy. Her own stupid genes at work, she figured. "How about you guys do me a favor and come play out here where I can see you, ok?"

"Why?"

"Just this once, I'll make a deal with you, Jacob. You and your sister come out here to play, and I'll tell you a story about when your aunt Chloe, aunt Lucy and I were kids." Greeted by silence, Lois smiled as she spotted Jacob dragging Cassidy along behind him. "Gently, Jacob, gently," she chided. He slowed down, and after helping Cassidy up onto the couch he got up himself. She didn't understand it, but he really liked when she told him stories about when she had been his age, and maybe enjoyed it even more when Lucy told him the stories. Best case scenario, her son had an odd fascination with her past. Worst case scenario, he was trying to get ideas from what she used to do with Lucy and Chloe. She was going to have to talk to Lucy about doing some censoring in the future.

* * *

><p>Two down, one to go.<p>

Devon was fed and changed but refused to sleep. Lois was most of the way through the catalog of Whitesnake songs she had memorized, but the humming didn't seem to do the trick as Devon seemed determined to stay up as long as she could. Amazing how babies could be just as stubborn as everybody else in the world, or at least hers could. "Ok, let's talk this through, Girly. You're tired but you don't want to admit defeat by giving in to the drowsiness. It's understandable. When I went back to school I was doing eighteen hours of class a week _and_ working full time at the_ Daily Planet_, making sure they didn't forget the name Lois Lane. The only time of day that I wasn't drowsy was when I was sleeping, and even then it was questionable. And then when your brother and sister were born, _whoa_ was I having some drowsiness issues. So you see, it's not just you. We all have our issues with being sleepy. I hate being sleepy! If I could operate on only two hours sleep a day, or better yet like four or five hours a week, you have no idea how happy I would be. Do you know what I could get done if that were the case? I was always so jealous of your dad, being able to go days without a wink of sleep. Of course, he was doing things a lot more helpful to humanity than I would, like saving it by making sure we didn't obliterate each other. Still, I was jealous. My articles would have gotten done so much more quickly if I didn't devote six or seven hours a night to giving in to the drowsiness."

Lois smiled sadly, thinking about some of what she'd just said. "I don't talk about your dad enough. I try to mention him whenever I can, but I feel like it isn't doing him justice. You'll never know how much I wish he could be here for you, and I know that I can't replicate his presence in your life, but I'm going to do my best to see that you still know who he is and what he stands for. Some day, when you're old enough, I hope you'll be able to understand why he wasn't here, and if he can't come back to us why he sacrificed for the world the way he did." Lois felt Devon rub her face into her shoulder, and picked up a picture of her and Clark, holding it to where Devon could see it when she stopped. "See that big, goofy grin? Your brother and sister both have it, and I love it. I'd say your odds of having it are 50/50, obviously, but so far you've been so much more like me than your siblings that I think you may actually inherit not only my personality, but my looks, too. Maybe you were conceived with a wimpy sperm cell, who knows, but I really do think you're going to be a lot more like a Lane than Jacob and Cassidy.

"But that's not a horrible thing. We Lane's are kinda cool. Up until your aunt Lucy and I came along, Lane's were military to the core four generations strong. Few families can say that. Your grandad went a little crazy when Lucy and I were born, and tried to treat me like I was a boy most of the time until it finally seemed to sink in that I was a girl, which I think was about the time I grew your two food sources and started kissing boys. Even then it was questionable at times, and I swear a few times I heard him muttering about that ridiculous old don't ask, don't tell policy. Of course, now that I'm saying all this, it doesn't sound kinda cool so much as kinda crazy. And you're probably thinking 'Half my genes are from some crazy lady that talks to me like I can understand her, whose dad refused to accept that she was a girl for most of her childhood? These are the people you think I'm going to be like?' Pretty daunting, isn't it? I worry about what you could inherit from me, and your dad always worried about what your siblings might inherit from him. I just hope you guys don't inherit his talent for moping for about ten years straight. Genetics are a total crapshoot, Girly, and we're all stuck with what we get, but I really hope all three of you managed to avoid _that_ predisposition."

Lois was going to go on with more of her rambling, but a knock at the front door stopped her. Surprised, she checked the clock and found that it was just after 9:30. Who the hell was coming by at this time of night, and why? Walking over to the door, she pulled it open without looking to see who it could be, and had the breath knocked out of her when sh caught sight of the person waiting for her.

"Hi, Lois..." Clark trailed off as his eyes drifted from hers towards Devon, and after a moment of staring at her he looked up at her again. "Huh."


	15. Chapter 15

- Chapter 15

If he was keeping track of the days correctly, Clark thought that it had been almost three weeks since they had put him in this room. To say that it had been a long three weeks made Clark want to either break out into laughter or fall down and cry, and if he did one he may not be able to tell one from the other. Craning his neck, he used his x-ray vision to watch the city. Since the bombings he had seen probably a fraction of the people he normally would have seen prior to that, but every person he did see felt a little bit like human contact. He had never been so isolated in his life, had never thought he would have to deal with such oppressive loneliness. The best thing that happened to him anymore was when they would slide food into his prison, the door essentially a big block of kryptonite so that he couldn't get out. The combination of that and the kryptonite in the walls immobilized him before he could escape. Slipping back into normal vision, Clark frowned as he made his way back to the center of the room, laying down on top of his cape. There was always a way out of something like this. He had seen Lois escape from hostage situations so many times that it now only scared a month off his life rather than the years it once had. She seemed to have a knack for it, and if he had picked up anything from her over the years, it's that to escape, you have to believe you can. An opportunity always presented itself. Now if only he didn't have to wait so long for his opportunity.

* * *

><p>He was a cliché. He was a big, ridiculous cliché.<p>

He had heard of it happening to people, but had never considered that it might happen to him, too. Obviously he never thought that he would be alone like he currently was, and not for so long, but still, was he so desperate for somebody to talk to? Stupid question, and one he knew the answer to. "If you'd quit ignoring me, maybe we could get down to business and actually talk some things through. I'm not here for my health, you know!" No. He refused to start talking to a hallucination of Lois, no matter how lonely he was, no matter how much he wanted to see her again, to take her in his arms and apologize for doing this to her. She had said time and again when they would talk about marriage that marrying Superman was like marrying a military man, that she would never be sure if he would come home from a mission, and that she had grown up around that and knew what it entailed. Despite that, he needed to apologize for leaving her alone to take care of Jacob and Cassidy. "You're feeling guilty for getting captured? Don't regress, Smallville! For crying out loud, I thought you dumped the habit of blaming yourself for everything in the world. Used to be somebody got a cold and you went into a guilt spiral. Quit it!"

God, the last thing he had ever wanted to do in his life was leave his two children without a father. They didn't sign up to be a part of the Superman life, yet somehow they were suffering because their old man thought he could go out and save the world from bad things that happened. When they had talked about children before Jacob had come along there had always been a little nagging voice in the back of his mind that he had been able to drown out because he thought the chance was so remote they would actually conceive that it didn't mean anything. Then he had been so wrapped up in the actual child part of having a child when Jacob had come along that he had never thought about it again, especially with what had happened with Chloe, and then having Cassidy, too. Life had happened, and he hadn't bothered to stop and think about what exactly was involved in life.

The vision of Lois walked straight into his line of sight, only a few feet in front of him, and sat down, staring into his eyes. What a ridiculous concept, a hallucination staring him in the eyes. Suddenly naked, she cupped her breasts, lifting them up a little and looking at them before looking back to him. "If I didn't know any better, Smallville, I'd say that you've remembered me a little more perky than I actually am these days. What'd you do, leave my age perfected wit intact and idealize my body? You remember that I'm in my later thirties and have had two kids, right? The ladies hang a little lower than they used to. I'm not in my early to mid twenties anymore. And I'm tight, too," she said as she shifted around a little bit. "Having babies stretches a girl out."

He was hallucinating and _this_ is where his mind went with it?

"Not that I'm complaining, of course. About the idealization, not the stretching," she added, "though I'm not really complaining about that, either." She stopped and frowned. "This is how I sound to you? There's no way I ramble like this in real life. Anyway, it's good to know that this is how you picture me, even if the real me doesn't know that. I bet she thinks the picture of me you can't get out of your head is the one where there's no makeup while in sweatpants and greasy hair. You know, that look I was sporting for a week right after Jacob was born and I had showered once in the span of seven days, and had slept about two hours a night. That was _rough._ I went back to work after that week mostly to force myself to shower."

"You've always been beautiful, no matter what," Clark said quietly, unable to help himself.

"And he finally contributes to the conversation! Jesus, Smallville, took you long enough. That whole ignore me and I go away thing wasn't working, but only you could keep it up for days on end. And while I love that you don't give in, it's annoying as hell to talk to somebody and have them not say anything in return, you know? I mean, sure, it's fine if that person is a baby and unable to respond, but I think you're a few years beyond that kind of thing, don't you? Whatever. Now that we're talking, we can actually get down to the matter at hand." She cracked her knuckles like she always did before starting an article, and Clark had to look away to keep from smiling at the familiar gesture. "So, how are you holding up?"

* * *

><p>"You look terrible."<p>

"Not helpful. Not helpful at all," Clark ground out, slowly sitting up from where he had just spent the past hour curled up in a ball to minimize kryptonite exposure. He thought he had seen an opportunity, something that hadn't occurred to him before, but with more time to think about it as he had writhed in pain, he realized it was the third time he had tried to escape like that and so far it was working about as well as everything else was.

"You know me; I calls 'em like I sees 'em. And I also sound ridiculous, something for which I blame you. I am what you make me."

"True." Clark opened an eye and spotted the figment of his imagination, which was suddenly standing naked in front of him. "Very true."

"Hey! That wasn't an excuse for you to undress me with your mind! And don't try to change my mind about this and make me ok with it because this whole situation doesn't work that way! You may be able to unclothe me but you aren't going to make me happy about it."

"Who cares if you're happy about it? You're not real. All I know is that I like you naked and I think I'm going to keep you that way for a little while."

She sat down on the floor next to him, folding her legs up in front of her body and resting her arms on top of her knees. "If there were ever any doubt, this just goes to prove that a guy is a guy is a guy. Even one from another planet will take any opportunity to get a woman naked and do anything to keep her that way, even if she is a hallucination."

"My hallucination of you is all I have," Clark said. He turned his head to look at her. "I love you."

She smiled at him, leaning over and resting her head on his shoulder. "I know, and she loves you, too. If what you need to get through this is for me to be naked, odd as that may be, then I'll be naked. I look good naked, so at least there's that. You keep me like this for long, though, and you're going to end up rubbing one out and giving the guys watching you on the cameras a show."

Clark shook his head. "You've been a terrible influence on me. I'd never even heard the term 'rub one out' until you introduced me to it. Now when I think of you and masturbation together it's the only term that comes to mind."

"That's because it's the least creative term that I ever used. I've got dozens of 'em and you chose the dull one. Color me shocked. On a related note, if there was one added benefit of growing up among the military men, it was that I acquired a vocabulary that most people wouldn't imagine. You get guys from all over the country with all sorts of vulgarities that they like to use and it really comes in handy when you're trying to screw with your dad. He spent three weeks trying to figure out who taught me a phrase I won't bother repeating in front of your delicate ears, though you already know all this since the real Lois told you about it."

Sighing, Clark laid down and after a second of watching her naked back, Clark smiled. He was imprisoned; what the hell could it hurt? "Could you... you know..."

"I don't know, Smallville. Speak your mind."

"I was hoping I could watch."

"Watch what?"

"You know... I mean, you're in my head, so you've gotta know..." He could almost see her grinning.

"Years of marriage and you still get all shy when asking me to get myself off while you watch. It's just sad, Smallville, though I admit it's kind of sweet, too. I'll be nice and do it because you need the mental escape from this place. But not until you ask nicely using one of the slang terms for it. Married or not, I'm getting something out of this, which is hearing you use a term you would never usually use."

Rolling his eyes, Clark shook his head as he swallowed, remembering one that Lois had found particularly humorous. "Will you please... _jill off_?"

"Only for you. But don't let your imagination run away with me. I'm going to smack you around a bit if it takes me fifteen seconds to get off and the orgasm lasts fifteen minutes. Now that I don't experience pain I can go to town on your ass if I have to."

* * *

><p>"Do you know how long it's been?"<p>

"I don't. I wish I did, given the circumstances, but all I know is that we're here, and that's especially true for you."

Clark stared up at the ceiling. "I know. I'm aware of that every second of every day that passes while I'm in this hole, unable to do anything. Everything I've attempted hasn't worked, four or fives times over. I can't figure anything else out. They thought of every contingency when they designed this place, and for the life of me I can't seem to come to any conclusions they didn't prepare for."

"You're Superman. Don't you know what that means?"

"It's a title. In here I'm just Kal-El."

"It's a title given to a person that exudes not only strength and abilities that humans can't have, but also the strength of character to use them to save people instead of conquering them. You know that you could rule the world with one hand tied behind your back, but instead you protect people from that. You've saved countless people that would have died without you there, usually with obstacles in the way. This is just another obstacle."

"An _obstacle_?" Clark asked, hoping he said that in a way that would convey just how unbelievable he found that statement. "This isn't an obstacle, this is a big roadblock made of kryptonite with now way to get around it! Obstacles are something you can think your way out of; this room has been thought proof for... for however long I've been stuck here! If this was _just another obstacle_ I wouldn't be here anymore while life went on in Metropolis! Do you have any idea what it's like to be stranded here day every damn day, unable to do anything? Every time I looked through the ceiling I felt like somebody was stabbing me in the gut because I could see freedom but couldn't get it. I could see sunlight but I couldn't feel it on my skin. I'm thankful I can't do it anymore! I would be torturing myself every time I used my x-ray vision!"

"Hey! I don't want to ever hear you talking like that, do you understand? Don't you dare lose hope. You will get out of here, and you'll still be the ideal to which people aspire. You'll still be the person that parents name children after. You remember how in the first year Superman existed the name Kal became the third most popular baby name in Metropolis? You can still be that to the people."

"What if that isn't what the people want anymore? What if this whole situation just makes them think that they don't need me anymore, that they can do well enough without me? From what I saw they were rebuilding the city in record time." Sighing, Clark sat up, staring at one of the nondescript walls that surrounded him. "Not that it matters anyway. If I try to pick up where I left off in Metropolis I've been told they'll attack the city again, and go bigger this time."

"But you'll be there this time and you'll be able to stop it."

"Sure I would, if they detonated the bombs in the exact same way. From what I've been able to hear they went off with a short amount of time from one bomb to the next. They could do it that way, though, because I wasn't there. If I'm out and free, what's to stop them from detonating a dozen bombs simultaneously? What if it's two dozen next time? Superman can't be in two places at once, let alone twenty-four."

"You know you can't save everybody."

"I can't even save myself!" Clark screamed, slamming his fist down. Small cracks splintered out across the floor from where his fist made contact, and within seconds pain engulfed him as green gas leaked up from the ground.

* * *

><p>"Do you think they'll really let me go?"<p>

"I don't know. Do you?"

"It doesn't seem likely. They told me that they were going to hold me for an indeterminate time, until Metropolis realizes it doesn't need me anymore. Then they supposedly let me go. That rings hollow, especially if it's Lex behind all of this like I think he is. He'd never let go of a captured Superman. If he weren't in jail he'd torture me for hours on end daily, probably beat me until I was unconscious and then wait for me to recover before doing it all over again. Even if he's just bankrolling the operation, I'll never be let go."

"You sound like you've all but given up hope, Clark. I know that you may not believe, on the surface, that you'll ever get out. But down deep, in your core, you have to keep hope alive that the opportunity will present itself for you to escape if they don't stick to their plan. I know that it's a dumb answer, telling somebody that's been stuck in a hole for months on end while being tortured with a toxic substance to keep hope, but what else is there? Hope is who you are, Smallville. It's a part of you, and I will never accept that you've given it up."

"I think they've beaten the hope of out me."

"Not possible. I think if it were possible for your hope to have been removed it would have come out through your penis and all be in the real me right now. Do you know how many times you two have had sex over the years? It's unbelievable that you haven't slowed down over the years."

"You're trying to distract me, to keep me from thinking about where I am and what's happening with talk about sex. Much as I appreciate the gesture, the days of you distracting me that way are gone. I was delving into my delusion then, escaping reality. Now it hurts to look at you. You're not an escape anymore, you're a reminder that I'm probably going to be in this hole until the day they finally decide to dose me with enough kryptonite to finish me off. That's not losing hope, that's finally facing reality. Do you know that I can't remember what it's like to feel the sun on my skin? I can't remember the feel of the wind on my face because they don't even pump fresh air in here. The only time anything fresh comes in is when they deliver my food once every couple days, and I only eat the stuff they give me out of habit. Maybe it's helping me stay strong at this point because I haven't gotten any sunlight in who knows how long. Stale air, stale food..."

"If they were going to kill you, why would they give you food?"

"Because even people that believe incarceration and torture such as this are justified aren't total monsters. They're not good people and have an enormous amount of misplaced rage, but torture is about pain and starving somebody is a deliberate attempt to kill. I don't think that most of the people recruited for and involved in this operation want me dead. They want me to live in pain, like they did. They want my world to become the lifeless abyss that they felt like theirs was. I bet when the order comes down for my demise most of them will hesitate, not thinking they had signed up for murder."

"Even in here, like this, you still think the best of people."

Clark nearly snorted. "I won't lie and say I haven't had some violent dreams about exacting some revenge, but I'm only kryptonian. As a people we were just as violent as humans, if not more so. Look no further than the creation of Doomsday for proof of that."

"And people need look no further than you to see the best of both kryptonians and humans. Biological parents that saved you from dying before you had a chance to live, at the cost of their own lives, and adoptive parents that took you in after finding you in the strangest of circumstances, teaching you the value of life. They could have given you up when your powers started developing, but instead they stuck by you. You're blessed, both as Kal-El and Clark Kent. Superman wouldn't exist if not for all these things in your life."

"Blessed indeed. I can't think of a better blessing than to be stuck away from my family like I am. You almost had me convinced, but you went too far with blessed. I think all my blessings ran out."

* * *

><p>"I wonder if it has been a full year yet. If that much time hasn't passed, I bet it's getting close, but then again it may have been longer than a year."<p>

"There isn't really a point to speculating how much time has passed. It's been as long as its been, then end."

"The end? Women have probably conceived and bore children in the time I've been here. Yes, an odd example to use, but the point is new lives are coming into a world without Superman while I lay here with a piece of my mind sitting next to me. That sounds more egotistical than I meant it to, because the world has existed without Superman much longer than it has with, but I thought I could change the world so that future generations would be born into a world with less strife. Instead I've created a world where people get so angry that I can't save everybody that they take me prisoner. Who knows what the Justice League is doing in my absence? I bet the search has been called off by now, probably a long time ago. The bylaws call for six months of a fully backed search for a missing member, and then it's put on the back burner. Until now that rule has never been used, as far as I know. They probably had to vote on whether or not to actually use it, knowing them. I'm sure they did, and I'm sure the vote was unanimous, but if I'm right it'd be nice to know that they had to at least debate it."

"You're Superman. Any decision pertaining to you being lost should not only be voted on, but be heavily debated, too."

"I appreciate the sentiment, but I hope there wasn't a long debate. I don't want special treatment. I spent my whole life trying to avoid being special, let alone getting treated like I was. Would kind of defeat everything that I worked for."

"You worked to be a beacon of hope and create a better world."

"A world where all people are equal, be they man, woman, rich, poor, with powers or without. Just because I have every advantage in the world doesn't mean that I should get special treatment, that I'm worth more than everybody else. Far from it. We all have our failings, no matter where we come from, and we all work to become better than we once were. For the vast majority of people parenthood happens and we work to create a world for our children that was better than the one we came into, even if we came into a pretty good one."

"Are you sure that this one qualifies as a pretty good one?"

"It's not so bad as people think. It could certainly be much, much worse. I know that I tend to wear rose colored glasses when it comes right down to it, but I think my time here has taken some of the tint out of them, and I still think that the world is a good place."

"I think this may be the happiest I've heard you in our time together, Smallville."

"I've finally come to peace with the fact that I won't be leaving this room. I've said my goodbyes to the people closest to me. There's nothing more I can do than love them and hope that they have good lives, full of love and happiness." As he finished speaking the door to his prison opened, and a group of men walked in. If he wasn't mistaken, it looked eerily similar to the group that had been there when he'd been captured. As they neared he began to feel sick, and he saw the glowing rocks in their hands. The first one to him reared his hand back, and Clark closed his eyes, awaiting impact. He felt it connect with his temple, sending him sprawling across the floor, and with nowhere to go he awaited the next blow, which sent the world away as unconsciousness overtook him.

* * *

><p>Opening his eyes, Clark blinked as he found himself staring into almost pure darkness. That certainly didn't help to orient himself to where he was being kept now. Wait, was that a pillow under his head, and was he on a bed? Sitting up, he held his hand in front of his face seeing only the outline of it. What, were they going to do some sensory deprivation just for fun, now? Feeling around behind himself, he found the pillow, almost not believing that it was there. He'd forgotten how good they felt after however long he'd been sleeping with his head on the floor. He was also clothed in a soft pair of pants and an equally soft shirt. What were they doing now, treating him like a spa guest? Would have been nice had they started that sort of treatment earlier in his captivity. As he threw the blanket off and turned to put his feet on the floor a door opened behind him, filling the room with light. He closed his eyes for a second, sighing. It occurred to him that this might end up being the experimentation phase of his life that he'd always hoped to avoid.<p>

"Clark?"

"Oliver?" Clark asked, getting off the bed and turning to face the doorway. What greeted him was Oliver, now including goatee. He flipped a switch and hit a button by the door as he walked deeper into the room. "What... how... where am I?"

"You're in the League's private medical facility in New York, Clark. We found you where you disappeared in India two days ago, covered by a sun blocking tarp and surrounded by kryptonite. You're lucky that you were dumped so close to a flyover date." Oliver walked over and, strangely enough, pulled him into a hug, which Clark awkwardly reciprocated. The most they'd ever shared, that he remembered, was a strong handshake and a smile.

A big part of him was just so giddy to see a friendly face, though, that he didn't really care. "It's good to see you again, Ollie."

His friend pulled back, clasping him on the shoulder. "You have no idea, Clark. We had all given up hope that we were going to find you, especially after we called off the official search and declared you MIA. Where the hell have you been?"

Before Clark could answer three more people walked into the room, all dressed in medical garb, with Bruce trailing the group and leaning against the doorway. Clark caught his eye and Bruce simply nodded his head, which was a pretty significant acknowledgment as far as Clark was concerned. He nodded back before he was instructed to sit back down by the medical personnel, who all began asking him questions at once. Fifteen minutes and ten times as many questions later, Clark was sitting in his bed with just Oliver and Bruce in the room, the two doctors and a nurse having been ushered out by the two billionaires. Staring at the ceiling, Clark smiled a little smile as he realized he was no longer staring at the same ceiling he had been for so long. He had never thought he would appreciate the ceiling of a hospital room so much. "Does Lois know I'm here?"

"No." And that was all Oliver said about that before changing the subject. "So what happened?"

"I was in Metropolis, in a bunker deep underground. From the vantage point I had it was difficult to determine where I was, but the buildings I could see suggested the south side of the city."

"How did they capture you?" Bruce asked quietly.

"They setup a trap in India, using the high amounts of rainfall as a cover. I imagine they blasted the damn that gave way, suspecting that I would come, and when they found me they immobilized me. They had an enormous amount of kryptonite, amounts that I haven't seen since the second meteor shower in Smallville. They had it in its natural rocky state, in liquid form, a kryptonite gas... they had obviously been planning to capture me for years, because they'd come up with a lot of different ways to use it. I don't know if they just found a big grouping of it somewhere or if they learned to synthesize the stuff, and I never bothered to ask. Escape never worked, and apparently they were bored with me so they let me go. That's pretty much everything about that."

"They just let you go? That doesn't make any sense with all the trouble they went to regarding your capture and holding."

"When they were flying me back from India in a very insidiously designed plane, one of them told me exactly what was going to happen, and as far as my release he was correct."

"What was his name?"

"Drew Tate," Clark answered after taking a second to think about it. "He's a former MPD Detective. His wife died when I wasn't in Metropolis, after that bad typhoon that hit Taiwan some years back. I think most of the people in the operation were friends or relatives to people I couldn't get to, which is why they were recruited, I imagine. How long have I been gone?"

"About ten months," Ollie said, getting up from his chair and stroking his goatee. A guy gets kidnaped and people start growing facial hair, though he was hardly one to talk. He needed a haircut and a shave badly. "Metropolis has changed, Clark. You won't be able to resume your duties, not without breaking the law."

"_Breaking the law_? How would I be breaking the law?"

"I'll give you details later, but essentially the city reacted very poorly to your disappearance when the city was bombed, which I can tell by the lack of reaction you were told about by your captors. The media turned against you, followed by a majority of the city population."

"I thought that might be the case. They told me they had people planted throughout the media outlets and in government positions to stoke public furor that I wasn't around."

"Then I'm glad we don't have to update on that. What I am sorry to say, though, is..." Oliver sighed and looked away, prompting Bruce to continue for him.

"Chloe was killed in the bombings, Clark."

"Oh, God..." Clark groaned, getting up out of the bed and walking around. Chloe was dead? He hadn't even... the last time he'd seen her was the night of the play group party. She had survived so much, only to die like _that_? "Lois and the kids?"

"All fine." Lois was attacked at your house the day of the bombings, and your house burned down. They live in Smallville now." Running a hand over his face, Clark almost couldn't believe what he'd just been told. Their house had been burned down? Lois was living in Smallville with Jacob and Cassidy? "I need to get out of here and go see them. It's been ten months. Lois probably thinks I'm never coming home, Jacob probably thinks I abandoned them, no matter what Lois tells him..." A hand on his arm stopped him, and he turned, finding Oliver standing next to him. "It's 5:30am, Clark. Wait until tonight, when it's dark. Nobody knows that you're alive outside of the League. Clark Kent was declared missing after the bombings as a way to cover your disappearance, and everybody thinks you're dead. We don't want you having to face any questioning people that you don't have to."

"Why haven't you told her that I'm alive?"

"If it had been apparent that you were going to need longer to recover we would have gone ahead and told her, but with you waking up already it's probably best if we just point you in her direction and let you show her that you're alive."

Clark nodded. "Ok, I'll do it your way."

"Good. Go ahead and get some rest. Sunrise is an hour away, so you can bathe in the sunlight and recharge your battery." With a pat on the arm Oliver retreated towards the door and Bruce followed. "We'll see you later, Clark. It's good to have you back." And with that he pulled the door closed, leaving Clark alone in the room.

* * *

><p>Getting out of the car Oliver had loaned him, Clark stared at the apartment building, having a difficult time getting himself started towards it. They had to have developed a rhythm since he'd disappeared so that Lois wasn't going insane being a single parent to two young children. Swallowing, Clark closed the car door quietly, walking slowly along the sidewalk, following it up to the building and the door to the apartment number that Oliver had given him. Raising his hand to knock, he hesitated for a second before forcing his hand up, knocking before taking a step back, waiting a moment until the door opened. Seeing her again, in person... "Hi, Lois..." Clark trailed off as he noticed she was holding something, and found that something to be a baby. Why... why... <em>why<em> was she holding a _baby_? He struggled to find something to say, but couldn't find any words, his brain having disconnected from his consciousness. "Huh." He wasn't sure if he'd said it about the baby or his lack of words, but either way, it worked.


	16. Chapter 16

- Chapter 16

Standing there, Clark shoved his hands into his pockets, unable to figure out where he wanted his eyes to rest. There was Lois... wonderful, beautiful, presumably corporeal Lois. And then there was the baby she was holding, its head against her shoulder. He was pretty sure that he hadn't been gone long enough to become a grandparent, which left only a couple options. She certainly wasn't offering any information on the subject, though he imagined it was probably a shock to see him. Had it not been for his long running hallucination it probably would have done the same to him, seeing her again. Lois seemed to finally recover, and stepped back a little, moving out of the doorway. "Clark! I, ah... come in."

Smiling a little, Clark shuffled past her into the apartment, adjusting the new glasses that he'd been given at the hospital when he had been provided clothing that didn't make him look like he was going to yoga class. He felt like he was back in his youth because the clothing given to him was a pair of jeans and a solid blue t-shirt. All he needed was his old red jacket that Lois had burned when they were dating. Looking around, he didn't recognize any of the things in the apartment, which made sense. All their stuff had burned with the house. He turned around when he heard the door close quietly, and leaned back against the arm of the couch. None of that was really the focus of his attention, though. She was holding a _baby_. Had she been pregnant when he had been captured? She hadn't told him, and if prior cases were any indication she liked to tell him as soon as she had a _suspicion_ that she was pregnant, let alone evidence of it. If she hadn't been pregnant that raised a whole different set of questions. He couldn't believe that the baby was a product of her sleeping with another man while he was gone; the time frame was too tight for that, and there was also the fact that he could never see her doing that with another man so soon after he was presumed dead. She would never give up so easily. That left the options of her babysitting for somebody or, even more strangely, having taken in a baby that needed a home.

Lois still looked like she was struggling with everything, looking as shocked, and maybe as nervous, as he'd ever seen her. Her eyes met his for a second before she looked away, exhaling loudly. She looked over at the baby resting on her, and seemed to notice that it had fallen asleep. "I'm going to go put her to bed. Give me a couple minutes and we'll talk."

"Yeah, sure," Clark said, watching as Lois walked through the living room and into the bedroom, quietly closing the door behind her. This might be a long evening.

* * *

><p>Why did her brain refuse to work? She had been in thousands of situations in her life where she could think on her feet <em>and<em> come up with something witty to say, but her husband comes home from being missing for ten months and suddenly she's struck dumb? What the hell was wrong with her? Sure, she was in shock, especially considering that she had answered the door holding a daughter he didn't know existed, and God only knows what he thought when he had first seen her. Worst case scenario, there were some worst case scenarios running through Clark's mind right this second. Best case scenario, he was realizing he had missed the first month of his daughter's life. Either way, she should have been able to say something to him.

This was a mess. If she found out that Oliver, or anybody else in the League, had known that Clark was alive and was going to show up on her doorstep without letting her know she was going to use them as practice dummies.

After giving her a quick kiss on the forehead, Lois put Devon down in her crib, taking a moment to watch her sleep. In her very brief life she hadn't had much contact with men, or any adults outside of her and Martha, meaning Clark holding her and feeding her could get interesting quickly. She had no way to predict how Devon was going to react not only to a stranger, but a male stranger. It screamed of potential disaster. She couldn't even be sure of how hurt by a poor reaction Clark would be because there was no telling if whatever had happened, wherever he had been, had changed him. She knew it was sad, but a part of Lois was glad that he had come after Jacob and Cassidy had gone to bed. That could have turned into a circus, at least with Jacob. He would have been all over Clark the instant he saw him. Who knows how Cassidy would have reacted, though she was certain it would have been a more muted welcome home than Jacob's.

There were a hundred things to figure out, and most of it needed to happen sooner rather than later. It was too bad she hadn't been able to get a longer nap in, because she saw a long night coming.

* * *

><p>Sitting down on the couch, Clark rubbed at the bridge of his nose. He hadn't exactly expected to come back to find Lois waiting for him with open arms. He knew that she and the kids would have adjusted to life without him, and that his coming back would be a readjustment, but if the first five minutes of being back were any indication the adjustment might be a little rougher than he had first imagined. Awkward silence, which was something that was never good concerning Lois, had seemed disturbingly close to happening, which was something they hadn't had to deal with since living at the farm before they got together. Despite his best efforts, he obviously hadn't tempered his expectations enough. Hearing the door off to his left, he turned and found Lois emerging from the room, baby monitor in hand as she closed the door behind herself. She walked over slowly and he stood up as she approached, pausing a few feet away for a second before closing the distance. Wrapping his arms around her, Clark almost wept at the feeling of her arms around him. "I missed you so much, Lois. I didn't... I thought I was never going to see you again."<p>

"Just goes to prove that you never have been any good at predicting the future."

Letting go of her as she did him, he watched her put the baby monitor down on the coffee table and sat down on the couch. He followed suit, allowing for ample space between them so as not to seem like he was pushing to act like the time apart hadn't really happened. They sat in silence for a moment, and Clark knew that Lois was going to soon start squirming and say something, anything, to break up the silence. "So, uh, what are the odds that you've taken up babysitting to make a little extra money?" Clark asked, staring off into space.

"Slim to none," she answered.

"I thought they would be about that," Clark said quietly, letting his head fall back against the couch.

"I didn't know I was pregnant when you disappeared, when the bombs hit and when the house was burned down. It wasn't until it was weeks later and I was still dragging, having no energy at all, that Martha insisted I go get checked out and I found out about her. I was shocked, because after everything that had happened the day of the bombings... I'll spare you the details for the moment, but I still can't believe I didn't miscarry."

"That makes two hers now."

"Yeah, we have a second daughter. I named her Devon. Devon Marie Kent. She's one month old today."

"You used the name I liked when we were trying to figure one out for Cassidy."

"I thought it would give her a little bit stronger connection to you, since you, uh..."

Lois trailed off, and Clark picked up where she left off. "Since I wasn't around to actually be a presence in her life. God, I can't believe you had a baby while I was gone."

"I've wondered the same thing every day, Clark."

"I wish Oliver or Bruce would have told me about her so that I could have at least been mentally prepared to see her, to meet her. Is she healthy? Happy?"

"She's as healthy as Jacob and Cass were, and as far as I can tell she's pretty happy. Sleeps like a baby, which is not enough, and eats like a champ. I think she's even getting close to her first smile."

"Good, good. How are Jacob and Cassidy?"

"They're both doing well. Jacob has made a lot of friends since we moved to Smallville, and went to a birthday party earlier today. Cassidy is a little shy, but I think she'll start getting over that soon, once she gets to be a little older and interacting with other kids. I was planning on putting the kids in daycare when I go back to work, both because I think the social interaction will be good for Cassidy and I felt bad leaving three kids with your mom now, or even two once the school year rolls around and Jacob starts kindergarten."

"Is she ok?"

"Yeah, but she's slowed down recently. I think taking care of Jacob and Cass five days a week for the first couple months after the bombings, when I was still in Metropolis trying to combat all the bad will being thrown at Superman, really took it out of her, not that she would say anything. Then she was taking them three days a week before I went on maternity leave from the _Ledger_, and with all that I think the years are finally catching up to her. She's almost seventy, and I didn't want watching the kids to be the reason she felt every one of those years hitting her all at once."

"No, yeah, I understand." Clark let his head drop, his chin resting against his chest as he sat forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "I need to go see her first thing in the morning, let her know that I'm back." Looking over at Lois, he found her with her legs pulled up underneath her body, jammed into the corner of the couch. He hadn't even noticed her move into that position. "How are _you_ holding up, Lois?"

With wide eyes staring out into space, she shrugged. "I survived, Clark."

"I know you survived, because you always survive and you're very good at it. But I asked how you're holding up."

After a moment of rubbing at her eyes, Lois finally looked over at him, tearing up. "I'm tired. I am _so_ tired, Clark. Your mom's been taking Jacob, Cass and Devon off my hands once a week, but I just... I haven't had the constant backup, not like it's always been before. I got used to having a new baby being a certain way, and I've had a difficult time adjusting, even after a full month. The adjustments are just now really starting to take hold as the norm. I've been sleeping as little as one expects to with a new baby, but with two young children thrown in, it's just intensely mentally wearing. And to top it all off with a very shallow note, I gained almost fifty pounds while pregnant and am still carrying around about thirty of that because my body isn't snapping back even half as quickly as it did after Jacob and Cass."

Fifty pounds? Clark figured Devon must've been huge when she was born, because that was fifteen pounds more than she had gained with either of their other two children. "You've always been beautiful, no matter what, Lois. Now is no exception."

She smiled at him before looking away, uncurling and stretching her legs. "That's bullshit, Clark," she said, propping her feet up on the coffee table. "But it's bullshit that I really missed hearing." Her smile melted away after a moment, and he looked away as she sighed. They had almost slipped back into some normal sounding banter for a second, but he figured she must still be hesitant to believe that he was really back. Having been absent for ten months, he figured she might be reticent to change her life back to what it was with any swiftness after such an abrupt change had happened before. "So... what happened in India?"

Dry washing his hands, Clark rolled his shoulders a little, trying to loosen up his muscles. The more he'd had to talk about what had happened, the more it had made him tense up, which he thought seemed the opposite kind of reaction he would have expected to have. "They caught me by surprise, obviously. I think they probably blew the damn on purpose, using the heavy rainfall as cover to get me there. After I was captured they flew me back to Metropolis and held me in a room underground with all kinds of kryptonite delivery methods."

"Oh my God," he heard her whisper, and nodded sadly.

"Yeah, it was... well, it was what it was. I lost track of time because the days bled together, especially after escape attempts. They _really_ liked to make use of the kryptonite after escape attempts. One of them actually told me, right after I was captured, that they were going to let me go after a period of time, but I didn't believe him, not by the end. By then I felt as at peace with the fact that I wasn't going to see you or the kids ever again as I ever imagined I could. I thought they would finally just kill me." Before anything else could be said cries erupted from the monitor, with Lois on the move as soon as she heard them with more speed than one would expect with all the tiredness she had confessed to. He was still a little quicker after having spent most of the day soaking up sunlight, and got up, stopping her before she got to the bedroom door. "May I?"

She didn't say anything for a few seconds before nodding her permission. It tore Clark up a little that it was even necessary, but he knew that for a mom that had been taking care of her baby almost singlehandedly for a month, even the dad needed permission. Giving her a quick, small smile, he walked back towards the bedroom, opening the door slowly as he went inside, spotting the crib off to his left. Walking over, he peered down into it, finding Devon bawling. Thinking about it for a second, he quickly found the bathroom, washing his hands before going back to the crib and pulling Devon out, nestling her against his shoulder like Lois had been holding her earlier, like he had done with his other two children. "You're a big one, aren't you? I remember when your brother and sister were a month old and you've got them both beat. And on that note, telling my little girl she's big, I should probably introduce myself. I'm your dad." Devon responded with another wail, so after a diaper check Clark started bouncing her a little bit. "You've certainly got a set of lungs on you, don't you? I know you're unhappy, but there's no need to cry. It's not just your mom and grandma anymore. Now I'm here too, and I plan on being with you as much as I possibly can. By the age of eight you'll be sick of me." She started to quiet down bit by bit, and Clark smiled. At least he was off to a decent start with somebody tonight.

* * *

><p>Lois turned off the baby monitor as she heard Devon start to quiet down, giving Clark a chance to have a little time alone with her. She was almost joyous that Devon was responding to him, not forcing her to go in and calm her down while Clark stood off to the side. As far as she was concerned it was the second best thing to happen all night, trailing by a wide margin Clark coming home.<p>

But why did it feel so off with him being there? As much as she had told herself that she had become used to his absence, she hadn't really believed it. But now that he was here she realized just how much things were going to have to change, and despite that being a positive thing she hated that there was going to be more upheaval in Jacob and Cassidy's lives. Their father coming from being missing shouldn't be considered upheaval, but it was going to change things again. She didn't know what he was planning yet, but she needed to find out. There was so much to talk through. If only it could be so simple as he came home and they resumed their life as it had been, but that life had ceased to exist on a day nobody anywhere near Metropolis would ever forget. She missed that old life. It hadn't been simple, not by any means, but it had been extremely simple by comparison. They had been happily typical, something she never thought would have made her happy. Now she longed for those days, when the longest Clark had been gone was six days.

Clark had finally come home after months gone and all she could focus on were the negative aspects pertaining to his absence. What the hell was wrong with her? He was finally home! And if his being able to go in and calm Devon down was any indication, he was going to be able to make life less hectic for everyone. Maybe she would actually get more than four hours of sleep in one night. Her life may have been filled with complications, but her dreams were simple, she realized. Getting up off the couch, Lois walked into the kitchen and got a glass of water, gulping it down in a few seconds before pouring another one. Stopping as she was going to leave the kitchen, she grabbed another glass and filled it with water, thinking Clark might like something to drink. She still didn't even know when exactly he had gotten out or how it had happened. Well, that wasn't totally true; he had said they told him they were going to let him go, but that seemed like it hadn't just been them opening the door and saying, "We hope you enjoyed your stay, Superman!"

They had tortured him. He hadn't come right out and said it, but the implication had been abundantly clear in the tone of his voice and look on his face when he had mentioned they had used kryptonite on him. She recognized the look, having seen it on rare occasions when she had talked to soldiers that had been captured by enemy forces. He had been tortured for ten months and she was complaining that she was tired from taking care of their children and hadn't lost more baby weight. Yeah, big fucking deal being thirty pounds heavier than she wanted to be. If her biggest problems were being tired and heavier than she liked, all that did was give her something in common with a majority of not only mothers, but probably all women in the western world.

Walking back into the living room, Lois noticed Clark coming out of her room, quietly shutting the door as he backed out. Putting his glass of water down on the coffee table and sliding it over to the side of the couch where he was sitting back down, she turned the monitor back on, just in case Devon woke up again. Clark smiled at her and took the glass, sipping at it before putting it back down. "Good to know I still remember how to do that."

"Did it take much to get her to go back to sleep?"

"Not really, no. Once I got her in my arms it took a moment for her to get comfortable, but she calmed down, and then it was just a matter of finding what she liked. Seems she has an affinity for humming."

"You already figured that out? Took me a week of having her home to learn that trick."

"Yeah, I started humming some Johnny Cash to her and she conked out."

"I imagine, with the low rumble of your hum, it was the vibrations that got her. I like to use Whitesnake, but Johnny Cash isn't a bad idea. Low tones and all that. A good car ride always seems to do the trick for her, too, but I haven't been able to do that much since I can't leave Jacob and Cass alone."

"You have help now, Lo," Clark said, turning his head to look at her. "I'm here for you and the kids. Even tonight, if you need me to bring Devon out here while you sleep, I have no problem doing that."

Lois ran a hand back through her hair, pulling it out of being in her eyes. "Did you want to stay here tonight? I didn't-"

Clark held up a hand, cutting her off. "I didn't want to presume anything. Coming back like this, surprising you like I did, I figured I should have a place to stay. I have a room at the new motel about five minutes from here."

"Oh, ok." Good lord, why was something so innocuous as him staying at the apartment such an awkward topic? "I just didn't know if you wanted to be in there with me, or out here on the couch. Either way, when the kids get up it will be pandemonium."

"Well, we can be a little sneaky about it. We'll roll the crib out here and I'll take care of Devon while you sleep. I can get you up at six, or sometime around then before Jacob and Cassidy get up, get you two going and then slip out. We can do that however long you like, until we figure out what to tell the kids about why I've been gone and what kept me away. Cassidy's still probably too young to understand any more than the fact that I was gone, but Jacob can probably grasp that something was keeping me away, and while I advocate honesty I don't want him or the girls finding out what happened until they're old enough to understand it, if ever."

"Same here. I mean, if you want to figure out something to tell Jacob before telling him and Cass you're back, that's fine. I'd rather try and figure something out right now instead of dragging this out for a few days. Plus, once we tell them, especially Jacob, they'll think that you're going to be living with us again, and I want that to be true."

Clark eyed her for a moment before shaking his head. "You're exhausted, Lois. This can wait until after you've gotten a full night of sleep and are able to think without so much effort. I'll bring Devon out here and you can go to bed."

"I think I remember what a full night of sleep is like," she said, smiling at him. She certainly couldn't deny that she'd love to go to bed now and get seven to ten hours of uninterrupted rest, which for the past month was something that hadn't even happened in her dreams if it wasn't Wednesday. There was a thought, though, that she couldn't get our of her mind. Now that he was here, even with the quiet spells that had started their somewhat tepid reunion, she didn't want him to go. Not at all. She wanted him to stay here, where she knew he was safe, story to tell Jacob about why he'd been gone be damned. Wordlessly she stood up and held out her hand to him. He took it and got up, and she pulled him along behind her, walking to the bedroom. Entering quietly, Lois didn't let go of his hand, and all ready having been in her sleep wear, laid down on the bed, bringing him down with her. He moved up behind her, his front flush against her back with his nose in her hair, and like that she felt months of tension melt out of her body. They were going to have to restart, but they were much better together than they were apart.

* * *

><p>Shooting up into a sitting position, Clark tried to catch his breath, sucking in as much air as he could before exhaling. Rubbing a hand over his face, he stared out into the darkness of the bedroom for the fourth night in a row, his dreams riddled with flashbacks.<p>

"What's the matter?" Lois asked, mumbling into her pillow.

Swinging his feet over the side of the bed, Clark rested his face in his hands a second, doing his best to forget the dream version of his nightmare. "Nothing, Lo. Go back to sleep."

* * *

><p>Finishing changing Devon's diaper, Clark gave it the once over before buttoning up her clothing and picking her up again. "All right, Miss Devon, you are officially cleaned up and ready to go. All I ask is that this diaper lasts more than an hour, if you can manage that. Thoughts? Comments? Well, maybe it's best you wait until you're older to voice them. I think your mom is right and you're going to be a lot more like her than you are me, which means you very well could be both gifted and cursed with a malfunctioning filter between your brain and mouth."<p>

"I heard that, Smallville."

"It will also give you the propensity to nickname people after the town in which they were raised, meaning you could one day have a husband you call Kalamazoo, or something equally silly. There might be some unsuspecting boy there right now, with no idea he's going to end up with a wife calling him by a goofy nickname." Grinning, Clark walked out of the bedroom and into the living room where he put Devon down in her carrier, which was sitting on the kitchen table, facing Lois.

"Kalamazoo?"

"Ridiculous name for a town."

"Because _Smallville_ is such a normal name. It sounds like the setting for a tv show like Leave It To Beaver."

"And yet you love this little slice of cornfield heaven," Clark said, kissing the top of Lois's head before making his way into the kitchen. "I'm going to make a sandwich. You want one?"

"No, thanks. I warmed up that leftover pizza while you were dropping Jacob off at his friend's house."

After making his sandwich, Clark heated it up for a few seconds and grabbed some water before going back to the table and sitting down across from Lois, who was reading over some papers for work. He still found it difficult to believe that the _Planet_ had fired her, Perry and a group of others because they had vehemently supported the notion that he hadn't abandoned the city, and instead was being stopped from helping. The board of directors had obviously lost its mind along with a good portion of the city. "You lost your job for me," he said around a bite.

She looked up, obviously having only half heard him and confused. "What?"

Swallowing, he decided to say it again. "You lost your job for me. A job that you loved so much I sometimes felt like I was competing against it for your attention when we first started dating."

"You knew what you were getting into. And yeah, I lost my job for you, and I'd do it again in a second. 99% because I will always believe in you and what you've done for Metropolis over the years, and 1% because I knew I was right and hate it when people tell me otherwise."

"I am well aware of that, and it obviously hasn't hurt your career. Mom told me that you've been nominated for another Kerth."

"It's my answer to all the people that thought I might slowly fade away into obscurity when you were supposedly killed in the bombings. Lois Lane does not go gently into the journalistic night."

"Mom also said that the ceremony is two weeks from tomorrow. I was thinking that maybe we should go, have a few days away and come back home refreshed. There was a mention that she would be glad to watch the kids for a few days. I talked to her about putting the kids in daycare, like you asked me to, and she said she came to the same conclusion you did about the slowing down, but is quite confident that she can watch them for a few days. I know it's out of the blue, but I think it's a good idea."

Lois pushed her papers aside and rested her elbows on the table, smiling. "Two weeks home and you're already looking to get away for a few days, Smallville?"

"Two weeks home and I can already see how much _you_ could use a few days away, not to mention a few nights of totally uninterrupted sleep." He couldn't help but grin at the glazed over look her eyes got at the mention of uninterrupted sleep multiple nights in a row. "What do you say? Are you mentally ready to leave Devon for a few days?"

"If Martha says she can handle it, then I believe her. And with Devon being child number three, I believe I have officially gotten over the _small_ amount of separation anxiety that plagued me with Jacob, and to a lesser extent Cass."

"Small amount? You were virtually crawling out of your skin the first night we spent away from Jacob, and to a slightly lesser extent Cassidy."

"Like I said, we're on child number three, and I believe I will have officially conquered that little quirk of mine. To prove it, I say we go to the Kerth Awards ceremonies and find out." She held out a hand across the table. "Deal?"

After wiping his hand off on his napkin, he reached over and shook hers, saying, "Deal." Going back to his sandwich, Clark finished it off with a few bites, and couldn't help thinking back to their first Kerth Awards ceremony together, when Chloe had won the prize. "She loved the award ceremonies."

"Who?"

When Lois asked, Clark realized he'd spoken his thoughts. "Chloe."

The smile slowly melted off Lois' face as she pulled her papers back and looked away. "Yeah, she did."


	17. Chapter 17

- Chapter 17

Rubbing the ring on her finger with her thumb, Vicki couldn't help the quirk at the corner of her mouth, managing to keep it at just that instead of having it turn into a full blown grin like it had for the past two days that she and Jeff had called a honeymoon. A few hours after the wedding they had put Beth on a plane back home so Chuck and the girls didn't feel abandoned, then had spent the rest of that day and the next in a hotel before flying back late the night before, seeing as little of Las Vegas as they could possibly manage while still being in the city. Just to say she had actually gambled, Vicki had dropped a dollar in a slot machine on their way out and had won ten bucks. She had taken that as a good sign.

It was difficult for her to try and come to terms with how significantly and how minimally a signed piece of paper, some spoken words and a ring on her finger changed her life. It wasn't a huge upheaval where she was changing cities and jobs. She didn't even have to change where she lived. But it was all different now. She wasn't living with her boyfriend anymore; now he was her husband. She was no longer just Vicki Vale, rootless journalist with no family; now she was Vicki Vale Powers, journalist firmly attached to a life in Gotham City. She hadn't been attached to any city since college. Glancing up between the people in front of her as the elevator came to a stop, she spotted that they'd come to her floor. Either they had stopped a lot less than usual or she was getting lost in her thoughts again, which seemed more likely. She was going to have to try and control her thought process a little more than a normal day. Her penchant for daydreaming might have gone up a little, which she surmised was a side effect of getting married.

Good lord, she had gotten _married_.

Excusing herself as she pushed past people to get out, she exited the elevator and walked briskly to her desk, dropping her purse in the bottom drawer and locking it before walking to Ryan's office, knocking a couple times before going inside, finding him sitting with his arms crossed, feet up on the desk. "I take one day off from work and this is what happens? You're relaxed?"

"Relaxing helps me think."

"I'm sure it does. What or who would _dare_ to make you think?"

"I've been trying to figure out why you took a day off. You haven't taken a day off since you started here, and no, I'm not counting when your boyfriend was stabbed because you took care of him _and_ sent me articles. To that end, yesterday was the very first day in which you called me, told me you were taking the day off and that was that. And after a day of thinking about it, I cannot figure out what would have made you take a day off. As you can tell, it's been bugging me."

"I was out of town," Vicki said, answering the unasked question with some of the truth. It wasn't that she didn't want to tell him that she had eloped in Vegas, but she had an idea of what his reaction would be when she did tell him.

"Where?"

She fought the urge to sigh, knowing that she was just going to end up telling him she had gotten married after a few more questions. "Las Vegas."

His eyes lit up a little bit. "Corrupt politician story?"

"No."

"Following the money?"

"Not even close. This trip actually had nothing to do with work."

"Oh hell," he grumbled, pulling his feet down off his desk. He seemed to have surmised what she was talking about with just the two questions. "You didn't."

"I kinda did."

"But you know my policy on happy journalists!"

"Yes, I'm well aware that you think happy journalists are less pissed off at the world and therefore less inclined to follow through on crazy and dangerous stories in a city like Gotham. I promise, you will never have to worry about me not taking any crazy chances. That is a trait hardwired into my DNA."

Sighing, he rested his elbows on his desk. "Whatever. I thought I had you nailed as one of those women that was married to her job, but instead I may be on the verge of losing another great journalist to contentment. Next thing you know you'll be having a kid and miss a few months because of maternity leave!"

"Contentment and great journalism do go together, Ryan. Look at what the team of Lane and Kent accomplished while in a relationship. Some of their best work came after they got married and had children! Trust me, this will affect neither the quality of my writing nor the investigations I conduct."

"We'll see. By the way, nominations for the Kerth Awards were announced yesterday and you were one of the nominees."

Frowning, Vicki thought back to when the submission deadline had been, but couldn't place it. Was is before Jeff had gotten shot? No, it had been right before Jeff had gone back to work. She had thought about submitting an article but had decided against it, not wanting to take the time to bother, her focus still on making sure Jeff wasn't pushing himself too hard too soon. She wasn't in the business for awards anyway, though the ones she had won were certainly nice. "I didn't submit anything, so unless they've taken it upon themselves to nominate articles they like..."

"I sent in the corrupt judges story that got you and Jeff attacked, or at least the one that I assume was the straw that broke the camel's back. It was excellent and you know it. Since I figured you were too busy helping the man that is now your _husband_ recuperate," he said, with something she thought akin to contempt dripping off the word husband, "I sent it in for you. Seems I was on the right track. Anyway, the awards ceremony is Saturday, June 15th in Manhattan, so it's not too far to travel. I expect you there and a mention of my name when you win. Now get to work. There's no telling what stories we may have lost with you not being here yesterday."

"Thank you, Ryan," Vicki said quietly before leaving his office, walking back to her desk. Sitting down, she didn't even have time to check her email before she spotted Ashley barreling towards her, smiling like she had never been so happy before.

"Vicki, hi!" she exclaimed as she got to the desk, pulling over a chair and sitting down. "When I asked Ryan where you were yesterday and he told me that you'd taken the day off! What happened?" She could tell Ashley and have the whole office, if not the whole building, know by the end of the day that she and Jeff got married, or she could lie to her. The lying seemed easier, but it would also just delay the inevitable. Vicki lifted her left hand up from her lap and held it next to her face, tapping the ring a couple times until Ashley noticed. "Oh my God! When? Where? How?"

"Late Saturday night or early Sunday morning, depending upon how strictly you define the start of the day, Las Vegas and we decided that a life together didn't sound so bad. Jeff likes official titles and I wasn't opposed to making an honest man out of him. We took his sister along with us so she wouldn't kill him for making her miss it, got married and had a two day honeymoon. End of story. Now go get back to work. I refuse to be the reason your work isn't finished." Off Ashley's slightly dejected look, Vicki decided to throw her a bone. "We can talk about it at lunch." A grin splitting her face, the younger woman bounced up out of her chair and off on her way to her desk. Shaking her head, she really hoped she'd never been quite so bouncy. It made her feel old to think it, but being that happy and bouncy had to be exhausting.

Logging into her computer, Vicki got into her email, going through the stuff that she had missed and sending quick replies to those that needed them. Finished with that, she remembered that she had wanted to catch up on the articles she was going to read the past few days, starting with the Lois Lane piece that was supposed to have gone up Saturday. Clicking her link to _Weekly_, she clicked into the Lois Lane section. Before she could search for the new article the page came up with a festive looking graphic.

Weekly_ is proud to announce that Lois Lane Kent delivered a baby girl, Devon Marie Kent, April 19__th__, 2024! Mother and daughter are both doing well. Our best wishes go out to the entire Lane and Kent families. Lois will be taking some time off before resuming writing for _Weekly_, and we thank you for your continued reading_.

That was a surprise, and a bit of a let down, too. She had been looking forward to reading something high quality, but she'd just have to live with what she found on the other papers. Debating on whether or not she should read articles or get to work, Vicki decided that one article couldn't hurt anything.

* * *

><p>"Finally!" Vicki yelled, tossing the rest of the mail down on the kitchen table before ripping open the envelope that had been keeping her waiting.<p>

"Finally what?" Jeff asked from across the room behind her.

Pulling out her new social security card, she held it up so Jeff could see it. "Finally my new social security card is here so I can change my name on my credit cards and bank account. I never knew that it was such a giant pain in the ass to get this stuff over with. This is in no way a complaint about putting your last name onto the end of my name," she added, wanting to make sure he didn't misinterpret, "just me being annoyed that it still takes a month to get the government to mail me a damn card. I should do an exposé on the time wasted by bureaucracy."

"I doubt your heart's really in it." She felt him give her a pat on the back and watched him walk by her into the kitchen out of the corner of her eye for a second before taking another look at the card.

In the eyes of everyone now, her name was now officially Vicki Vale Powers. It was odd to think about the fact that anybody she met now would know her by a different name than people that had met her at any time before she'd married Jeff. Would the name and the fact that she was married affect impressions of her? Considering that she had spent most of her adult life telling people she was single and fine with it, no matter what society said about being alone, it was something of a stark contrast to being married after what could easily and accurately be called a whirlwind romance. "I can't believe I actually got married," she said to herself, chewing on the inside of her lip as she did so.

Sitting down beside her at the table, Jeff smiled at her, saying, "You know that you've uttered that at least once or twice a week for the past month, right?"

"Yeah, I know. I'm still kind of in shock. I know I've said it like a dozen times since we've met, but I never cared about getting married. I mean, sure, when I was a little girl I daydreamed a bit and talked about it with my friends, but when I found journalism... that became my passion. It was my professional life, personal life and drug of choice. Obviously I had an actual personal life and no actual drug of choice, but it was all sacrificed at the altar of journalism, and I had no problem with that. I still wouldn't if I hadn't met you. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that if I hadn't met you, I probably never would have gotten married." Vicki rolled her eyes. "You must be tired of hearing me say that."

"I think it's only half a dozen times, but you know what? I like the way you say things."

"You're just sucking up to me so I'll go have sex, aren't you?"

"Absolutely not! We're newlyweds; why in the world would I need to suck up to have sex with you? Plus, you're so hot for me that I bet I can get through the first year without any sucking. Well, any sucking up."

Vicki laughed a little bit before leaning over and poking him in the arm. "Never underestimate the power of sucking up to your wife."

"Was this always a rule, or are you just making it up now?"

"No, just me wanting you to think you have to work for it a little bit. And hey, be happy I'm not one of those women going into this marriage thinking 'I never have to have sex when I don't want to again!' because then you would be screwed."

"And what a horrible life that would be," he murmured, scooting his chair over close to her as he started nuzzling at her neck.

* * *

><p>"Look, I'm going to go ahead and put this out there: I can shop, but it's not my favorite thing in the world." After taking a sip of her coffee, Vicki continued. "Therefore I'm going to ask for your help. My editor is making me go to a journalism awards banquet because I was nominated for a Kerth Award, which is something of a big deal in my line of work. As such, I need a dress that makes me look amazing. I'm going to drag Jeff along so I don't have to make small talk all night without an excuse to get away, but I also want to look so good that he's rendered dumb with desire. And yes, I admit that I just now am realizing how uncomfortable that may make his sister and long time good friend feel."<p>

"I've heard worse," Beth commented, shrugging.

"I've said worse," Sam said quietly, looking like she was trying to hide half her face behind her coffee mug. She must have remembered what exactly that worse was.

"Good, because I prefer not to be pulling my foot out of my mouth. So, with everything on the table, I'm asking for help. Jeff tells me that you two have great taste and have been telling him what to wear for years, so there's that, and then add in the fact that you two will probably know best what I can wear that will drive him up a wall, which equals me asking your help to find a dress before the banquet in two weeks. Preferably this afternoon so I don't have to shop any more than necessary."

"Take my sister-in-law shopping?" Beth asked, breaking out into a grin. "I think I can deal with that. Of course, I'm still in a bit of disbelief that I actually _have_ a sister-in-law. I never, ever thought Jeff was going to get married. It seemed like he never had any interest in it, and it isn't like he had a lot of long term relationships. You did something to him, Vicki, and whatever it is I really like it. He's always had a smile at life kind of attitude, but since you two got together he seems to smile at life a lot more than he was."

"Funny, I was under the impression that he'd done something to me." After taking another sip of her coffee, she looked back over her shoulder and watched him play with Jenny and Liv while Chuck sat on the couch, looking like he was taking a breather. Jeff's whole claim that kids had never really taken to him obviously hadn't included those two because as soon as he'd walked in they'd nearly tackled him in excitement. "He's prone to a little white lie now and again, isn't he?"

"As much as we all are," Sam said. "Why?"

"It was a conversation about kids we had months ago." Vicki turned back to face the other women. "He said, and I quote, 'I like kids but I've never strived to have some of my own because most of them have disliked me through the years, even my nieces.' Yet whenever we're here I don't think two people could be more happy to see a person."

Beth smiled. "Well, there's a little bit of truth to that. Chuck has had his beard as long as I've known him, and because he was what they always saw as far as men they were a little shy around men with no facial hair when they were younger. This was when Jeff couldn't come around as much, when he was working between sixty and eighty hours a week. They would see him once every two or three months and were shy, that's all. But now that they're seven and five, yeah, whenever uncle Jeff comes by it's play time."

"Everybody in out large group of friends has children," Sam said, continuing as Beth trailed off, "as you saw at Jeff's birthday party, the one where we actually brought our children along, they all love their uncle Jeff. The worst about shyness and not taking to him were Jenny and Liv. So really that's not a little white lie so much as a regular sized lie."

"Apparently. I'm just going to take it as him trying to make me feel better because I actually have a history of children not finding me likeable."

"_That_ sounds like something he would do," Beth commented. "And that other part of your quote was true. He really hasn't ever seemed like he was going to do anything about having children of his own. Until now, that is. When we were younger, like mid and early twenties, he said that he might have some one day because he liked the thought of a descendant of his five hundred years later having some huge impact on the world. It was more theoretical than anything, and not really all that serious, as you can tell." She rolled her eyes before continuing. "He said that after I had poured my heart out to him. I was twenty-three and I had just broken up with my college boyfriend because he wanted to start a family right then and there. You remember when I called you crying about that, right Sam?" Vicki saw her nod as Beth continued. "The guy was obsessed with having kids while young. And it came out of nowhere! We had a scare once, when we were nineteen, and totally avoided having an actual conversation about what we would do, but other than that we'd never discussed children. Then out of nowhere he says that we should have kids right away and was dead serious about it. When I told him that I wanted to wait a few years before starting a family he dumped me on the spot.

"I was crushed. We had been together since the third day of college, when we met at a party. I thought it would last forever, and suddenly the guy I'm living with is breaking up with me. I was living in Boston because I went to school at Tufts and was working as a nutritionist for a rehab center. The day after we broke up I quit my job, packed up everything I could fit in my car, drove back to Gotham and moved in with Jeff. This was all without telling him anything about what had happened. He didn't ask questions, never let me pay a dime of rent or any of the bills while I lived with him and was the best brother a person could ask for. When I finally broke down and told him what had happened, I spent hours telling him what I thought I'd had and what I wanted out of life, what I wanted my future to be and what I hoped I could accomplish. I told him that I wanted kids one day because I liked the idea that I could do something so mundane, really, yet so profound as have a baby and help shape a small piece of a future generation. Then he goes and says his thing about a descendant five hundred years in the future changing the world, which is actually something to think about, but knowing him as well as I do I knew he was blowing it off more than answering seriously. Up until he found you, Vicki, I don't think he ever gave it serious consideration. You can probably say better than I can if he's thinking about it seriously now, but I get the impression that for the first time it's an actual reality for him."

"That was an insightful and long speech just to bring things around to whether or not Jeff and I are thinking about kids, wasn't it?"

"It was actually just supposed to be a story, but it does seem to have gone that way."

"Not the original point," Sam said, "but she brings up an interesting question. I know I kind of freaked you out a little bit when I asked if you and Jeff intended to get married and have kids when we met right before you two eloped, and I am still curious since the only answer I got that time was that you weren't totally against the idea."

"To be perfectly honest with you both, we're thinking about it." The two sets of eyes on her widened at that admission, which made her smile a little bit. Sometimes it was fun to surprise people. "We got in-depth about it a couple weeks ago. I told him that if he wanted kids, I wanted kids. He then said that if I wanted kids, he wanted kids. Unfortunately, neither of us could actually figure out if we wanted any or not. Before deciding anything we figured it best to know if we could, and the doctor called the other day to tell us we're both able. Now we just have to figure out if we're willing."

"You've talked about it, found that you're both open to it and you've had fertility tests," Beth said as she ticked off each point on her fingers, "which only leaves one thing." She pointed at her head. "I'm betting one or both of you mental blocks."

Vicki considered her words carefully, trying to find the right way to phrase what she wanted to say. After a moment of consideration she decided to pose a question to the other two women. "First off, I'm happy with the way things are. I've been something of a modern nomad until I came to Gotham, jumping from publication to publication every couple of years since college. This is the first time I feel like I can put down roots and not be jumpy from staying in one place too long. Thus, happy. I'm used to changing my life, but this would be a different magnitude of change, and therein lies my hesitation. Before you were pregnant, how did you two come to grips with the fact that one day your life is about one thing and then like that," she said along with a snap of her fingers, "it's about something else, or more appropriately somebody else, completely and totally?" Her question was greeted with two slightly confused looks. "You two are making me feel like I'm over thinking."

Sam responded first. "You're actually voicing a very common concern. It is a lot to try and process, being responsible for a life that isn't your own. Are you thinking about it more than most? Maybe. But you may be thinking about a different aspect than most people. That doesn't mean you're over thinking by any means. As far as your question, I didn't have to think about it before I got pregnant. I'm actually dysfunctional birth control away from not having my son. After I got pregnant I didn't really think about the life changing consequences as much as I should have because I dove right in. Books, classes and whatever else I could find."

"And I never really thought about it," Beth added with a small shrug. "I knew I wanted children, and Chuck wanted children as well, so we had a couple. In hindsight we probably should have thought about it like you are, but I'm also glad we didn't because I very well may have ended up in the predicament you're in, if not scaring myself out of having any."

"Considering you knew that you wanted to have children, I doubt it.," Sam said. "You may have talked yourself out of it for a time, but not totally."

The conversation lulled for a moment, leaving Vicki to stare at the counter top for a moment before deciding to put into words what was weighing on her mind. "Being hit with all these baby questions that I'm trying to answer and the marriage questions I all ready answered, I've had to ask myself yet another set of questions, starting with Was I tamping down wanting marriage and family in my pursuit of journalism expertise? I don't think I did, but having been swept up the way I have, getting married and considering starting a family, it's hard to say if this is simply the effects of falling in love with Jeff. Could it just be that I'm happy, and am getting caught up in the social norms of finding a man you love, marrying him and having children? I like to think I'm above that kind of thing, but I'm only human and I may have just been kidding myself." Checking to make sure none of the children were near, Vicki continued in a lowered voice. "Life is a clusterfuck of messages bombarding us our whole lives, and one of the most prominent messages is have sex, and by extension have children. The out and out attempts at indoctrination into the norm from day one has created a massive stigma on those people that choose to live their lives differently, be it without a spouse, without children or some other way. Like I said, I like to think that I'm above a reaction to having that stigma placed upon me, but no matter how confident a person is, we all have our weaknesses and on some level care what others think of us.

"I can't know if I would have started looking for what I've found with Jeff had we never met, and I don't know if I would have ever heard the ticking of my biological clock. Or maybe that's exactly why children has become such a huge topic for me. Is _this_ my biological clock ticking? I was the one that brought children up, knowing that if Jeff and I were going to go down that road we should try sooner rather than later, no matter how many women you see having children in their forties. I want the question of to try or not to try answered one way or another. The problem is I don't know how I feel, and I don't even know how I want to feel, so I'm looking for answers and coming up with questions about what answers I want!" Vicki started rubbing at her temples, the tension in them starting to annoy her. "I've only known you guys about six weeks, so I feel bad about having the equivalent of an emotional enema in front of you." She heard them both chuckle, which made her feel a little bit better about the situation. "That said, it felt really good to get all that out of my head, but God, doing so gave me a headache. Stupid love, making me think about things I was perfectly happy not thinking about."

"Not a statement that you hear every day," Beth said.

Vicki wasn't sure if the comment was directed at her or just a voiced thought, but answered anyway. "Not a statement I thought I'd ever utter."

* * *

><p>"It's your category. Are you nervous?"<p>

Smiling, Vicki took Jeff's hand and placed it over her heart. "Feel that calm, steady thump? All because of you."

"I figured it was because you've won two of these things before."

"That does help, yes," she said wryly, lowering his hand so it was no longer sitting on top of her breast. "Plus, I don't think I've got a chance in hell of winning. The only time Lois Lane has ever lost when nominated for a Kerth Award is the two times she lost to her husband. Can't imagine what that relationship must be like when they're both up for the same award. Anyway, the piece she was nominated for, connecting Intergang to gun running and drug shipments all over the world, is far and away the favorite. She didn't take the whole thing down, but she dealt a serious blow to a major crime organization. All I did was expose half a dozen federal judges on the take."

"Federal judges taking bribes? Yeah, that's pretty much nothing."

"Shhh! They're making the announcement." Watching as Perry White walked across the stage and stepped up to the microphone, Vicki knew that any chance of winning was gone. He wouldn't present an award unless it was going to somebody who worked for him, which meant that it was going to Lois Lane.

"Good evening, everybody. It's nice to see you all gathered here tonight, and I hope you're all enjoying yourselves. This is the award for investigative journalism as you all know, so let's get to it. The winner of the Kerth Award is... Lois Lane Kent of _Weekly_!"

Vicki smiled and clapped along with everybody else, watching Lois walk up to the stage to accept the award. "That's what I thought."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm not. It's been a pretty good evening despite the not winning. We got to eat some great food and I wore a dress so hot that when you saw me in the hotel room we ended up having a quickie so good I think I'm _still_ feeling the aftershocks. Now, listen to her speech."

"I hate having to be up here and speak. If I wanted to do that I'd work in television, not print." She sighed and shook her head. "That's a joke that only works here, and even then it sucks. Anyway, I have a few people to whom I'm dedicating this award. First of all to my children, Jacob, Cassidy and Devon. Those three weren't around when I started as a journalist, when I wanted to clean up the world and make it a better place because I wasn't happy with how things were, but they've made sure that I'll never be satisfied that it's cleaned up enough. Second, to my recently returned husband, Clark. I had a hunch that he was out there somewhere after the bombings, and he made his way back to me. I felt like I was only half as good as I'm capable of being when he was missing because I was working without my heart, sappy as that is. He does that to me.

"Third, to my editor, Perry White, who gives me enough leniency in deadline and word count that makes this kind of story possible. And fourth, to a cousin I lost in the bombings, Chloe Sullivan. Some of you may remember her, as she worked at the_ Daily Planet_ with Clark and I, and for most of my journalism career she was the reason I was as good at my job as I am. She pushed me to be better than I ever would have been without her. Where I naturally find trouble and it luckily turns into a story, Chloe could sniff out a story where nobody else could and was the best natural journalist I've ever met. I like to think she's out there somewhere, keeping an eye on my investigations and reading my articles, so I want to say I miss you, Chloe. Thank you."

Watching Lois walk off the stage with Perry White and back to her table, Vicki turned back to Jeff. "And with that, I'm going to go congratulate the winner. I'll be back in a minute." Getting up from her chair, Vicki made her way through the people mingling between award announcements, and ended up behind a few people that she assumed were also there to offer their congratulations. Waiting patiently, the others said what they wanted to say before Vicki found herself staring at the back of Lois Lane while she huddled close to her husband, whom Vicki hadn't even been aware was alive until it had been mentioned on stage. They didn't notice her for a moment so she cleared her throat and held out a hand to shake Lois's when she turned, which they both did a second later. "Hi, I'm Vicki Vale Powers. I just wanted to say congratulations on your win tonight."

They both stared at her before Lois seemed to regain herself, shaking Vicki's hand. "Um, thank you."

"It was a great piece, every word. If there's a silver lining in losing, it's knowing that I lost to the best. Anyway, if you're ever near Gotham and need a guide or just want to see a friendly face, I'd love to hear about your investigations sometime." With a quick smile Vicki turned, making her way back through the room and back to Jeff, who stood up as she got to him. "You want to blow this popsicle stand?" she asked, grabbing her clutch purse off her chair.

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close, and they walked out of the room. When they were outside and alone, he leaned in close to her ear. "Does that mean we get to go back to the hotel room and..."

"I plan on getting out of this dress so quickly it won't know what hit it."

"Actually... how about you leave it on. I think it would take too long to get it off and I'm an impatient man."

Vicki couldn't help the grin that stole across her face. "Lucky me."


	18. Chapter 18

- Chapter 18

Adjusting her dress so that it wasn't crooked, Lois gave herself the once over in the mirror, checking front and back. For the first time in the two months since Devon had been born there weren't especially pronounced bags under her eyes, and with Clark back home she had been able to take advantage of his special parenting ability to keep track of three children at once to get some better, more straight forward cardio workouts in and she had lost another ten pounds. What that meant was that she had been able to squeeze herself into a gorgeous dress and didn't mind the way she looked. More curvy and definitely softer than she preferred, but good. Taking her eyes off the mirror, Lois grabbed her clutch and was about to walk out their hotel room bathroom when she felt her phone move around in the clutch. Thinking about it a second, Lois grabbed the phone and dialed the farm, sitting down on the side of the tub.

"Kent residence."

"Martha, hi! It's Lois. I just wanted to see if the kids were behaving themselves and make sure Devon wasn't too distraught that we haven't come back yet."

"They're all doing very well, dear," Martha said, and Lois could hear the amusement at having to reassure her again. It wasn't like she _wanted_ to be the mom that had a difficult time going a day without calling to check in, and considering she had been going four days a week not seeing her children after the bombings, when she could have been clinging the most, she thought she was doing pretty well.

"Good, I'm glad. Tell them I love them, and don't let Jacob con you into letting him stay up too late by telling him stories about when Clark was his age. He gets away with that way too much with Clark ever since he got back."

"I'll keep that in mind, and pass along both your love and Clark's. Good luck with the award, Lois."

"Thanks, Martha. Goodnight." Hanging up, Lois got up, straightened out her dress one more time and walked out of the bathroom, finding Clark fumbling with his tie. Walking up to him, she batted his hands away before going to work on getting it tied correctly. "It never fails to amaze me that you, with all your powers, so often need help with an ordinary tie."

"There are two reasons I tend to have trouble. The first is that you're so beautiful I lose coordination when you're around."

"The old bumbling and stumbling shy, nerdy guy theory from work. Continue."

"The second is that when I act like I'm having trouble with my tie, you come stand very, very close to me. Sometimes you even press your body lightly against mine when you're having a little trouble with it and are concentrating on getting it right. I know that I probably shouldn't be giving that little secret away, but you're doing it again and I'm powerless against it, and therefore am offering up truths I should not."

Grinning, Lois stayed where she was for a second after finishing with his tie before pulling away. If she kept doing it there was going to be a tearing of clothes soon following, which would probably ruin her chances of going to the awards ceremony without wearing jeans and a t-shirt, which she had heard was frowned upon. She had gotten to the point recently where she felt comfortable with the idea of having sex again, which hadn't been something she'd thought about at all until Clark had come home. Being honest with herself, Lois had thought it would be a long, long time before she had sex again. Once Clark had come home she'd been thinking about it and had slowly been coming around to it, recently finding that the idea of having sex again was extremely appealing. The current problem with her readiness was that Clark wasn't taking the hint like he had always so easily and readily done before. She wasn't too worried about it yet, considering that it had only been a week, but it had thrown her for a loop. In years past the slightest hint had sent him flying to her, sometimes literally. He had probably just been distracted, or maybe even had forgotten a few of her more subtle hints while they'd been apart. She would have to try something a little more overt next time. Walking up to him naked and yanking his clothes off would probably be just overt enough. She smiled at him, wrapping her arm around his as they exited their hotel room. "Should we walk or take a cab?"

"It's a beautiful evening and we're only four blocks from where the ceremony being held, so if you're all right to walk in those heels, then I say that's what we do."

"Done and done, Smallville."

They took a leisurely pace, and found themselves at the ceremony with a little bit of time to spare before the announcements started. They spent most of the time in comfortable silence, seated in their assigned spots as award winners were announced, some there, some not. Most of the speeches seemed to focus on the fact that it was tough out there for a print journalist anymore, those that remained, which made winning the award all that more special. Lois wasn't sure she agreed with that sentiment, considering the loss of papers and periodicals nationwide meant fewer and fewer hard hitting pieces were being done in their medium, which maybe made the award a little less special. Not that she wasn't going to enjoy it if she won. When it came time for her category, Clark entwined her fingers with his and kissed her on the cheek, whispering, "Good luck, Lo. Not that you need it."

She grinned and gave his hand a squeeze to show her appreciation for his good luck wishes, then grinned a little more widely as she saw Perry walking across the stage to the microphone. That cinched the win in her mind, because she couldn't see him going up there to present unless it was to somebody that worked for him. "Good evening, everybody. It's nice to see you all gathered here tonight, and I hope you're all enjoying yourselves. This is the award for investigative journalism as you all know, so let's get to it. The winner of the Kerth Award is... Lois Lane Kent of _Weekly_!"

Taking a calming breath, Lois stood up and wrapped her arms around Clark as he stood, holding on tightly for a second before giving him a quick kiss. "Finally feels like things are getting back to the way they used to be, don't they, Smallville?"

"You winning awards is the way it will always be, Lo."

Walking onto the stage, Lois took the award from Perry, giving him a quick smile before stepping up to the microphone. "I hate having to be up here and speak. If I wanted to do that I'd work in television, not print." She sighed and shook her head. "That's a joke that only works here, and even then it sucks. Anyway, I have a few people to whom I'm dedicating this award. First of all to my children Jacob, Cassidy and Devon. Those three weren't around when I started as a journalist, when I wanted to clean up the world and make it a better place because I wasn't happy with how things were, but they've made sure that I'll never be satisfied that it's cleaned up enough. Second, to my recently returned husband, Clark. I had a hunch that he was out there somewhere after the bombings, and he made his way back to me. I felt like I was only half as good as I'm capable of being when he was missing because I was working without my heart, sappy as that is. He does that to me. Third, to my editor, one Perry White, who gives me the leniency in deadline and word count that makes this kind of story possible. And fourth, to a cousin I lost in the bombings, Chloe Sullivan. Some of you may remember her, as she worked at the_ Daily Planet_ with Clark and I, and for most of my journalism career she was the reason I was as good at my job as I am. She pushed me to be better than I ever would have been without her. Where I naturally find trouble and it luckily turns into a story, Chloe could sniff out a story where nobody else could and was the best natural journalist I've ever met. I like to think she's out there somewhere, keeping an eye on my investigations and reading my articles, so I want to say I miss you, Chloe."

Walking off the stage with Perry, she shook a few hands as she walked back to the table, even getting a quick hug from Ron Troupe as she was getting back to her table, which was both nice and a little odd. They had never really had a hugging relationship, but after not seeing each other for the better part of a year to keep up their friendly rivalry, they'd simply ended up friendly with one another. They both worked for Perry, so maybe it was a team unity thing. Finally getting to sit down, Lois leaned over and rested her forehead on Clark's shoulder. "This is the night I've been waiting for, one that feels like all the events of the last year are finally behind us and we can move forward. I _really _want to move forward, Smallville." Before he could say anything a few people approached them, and she thanked them for their congratulations. When they were gone, Lois leaned in close to him again. "Also, here's what I should have said up there on stage: I love you, Smallville."

They were then interrupted again by a throat clearing off to the side. Turning so she could say hello and thank you, Lois was struck dumb, unable to believe what she was seeing. Standing in front of her with an outstretched hand was Chloe, sporting dark hair and wearing glasses, smiling at them. "Hi, I'm Vicki Vale Powers. I just wanted to say congratulations on your win tonight."

What the hell was going on here? Vicki Vale Powers? What the hell did she mean that she was Vicki Vale Powers? Chloe was supposed to be dead! "Uh, thank you," was all Lois could get out.

"I just wanted to say congratulations, and if you're ever in Gotham and need a guide or just want to see a friendly face, I'd love to hear about your investigations sometime."

And with that, Chloe... no, Vicki Vale Powers... walked away. Shooting up out of her chair, and seeing Clark do the same out of the corner of her eye, Lois watched as she walked up to a man as he stood up and walk out of the room with him, his arm around her. Grabbing her clutch and the award she had just won, Lois made her way through the room, excusing herself as she passed people trying to congratulate her on the victory. She wanted to get out of the room so she and Clark could talk without having to mince words or quiet down to not disturb those around them. Deciding instead that she wanted to know where Chloe was going, she hurried her pace as Clark started taking longer strides, now walking beside her instead of behind. "Where are we going, Lois?"

"We're going after her."

"Is that the best plan? She either had never met you before or is the greatest actress we've ever met. There was nothing in her voice, mannerisms, _anything_, that tipped off she was anybody but who she said she was."

"I know!" Lois exclaimed, though doing her best to hold her voice down so they didn't attract attention as they walked out of the hotel where the awards ceremony was being held. "I want to know what's going on, Clark."

"I know, but don't you think she would have given us some sort of signal, said something that indicated she wanted to talk?"

"Smallville, Chloe is supposed to be dead. She isn't. I want to know why I was lied to and what the hell is going on! Use your vision to see where they went."

He eyed her for a second before lowering his glasses and looking around slowly, finally stopping when looking back over her shoulder. "There they are. They're actually headed in the same direction as our hotel."

"Good."

* * *

><p>Walking in the hum of the city, Vicki enjoyed the simplicity of moving through busy Manhattan, wrapped up in her husband both mentally and physically. As they approached their hotel Vicki slowed down, using Jeff's hand to bring him to a stop as well. Looking up at his face, she shook her head. She had known since bringing it up with him which way she was going to go, but until now she hadn't found the ability to voice what she was always going to say. Until now she had kept questioning why she was going to say it, why she wanted what she wanted, but now... now she could accept that it was simply what she wanted. "I'm still not entirely sure why, and this isn't a sentence I foresaw myself ever saying until I fell in love with you, but I want to have children. More specifically, I want to have your children."<p>

"Really? I never could tell which way you were leaning when thinking about it." As she was still holding his hand, he used that connection to pull her into a quick hug. "Just so you know, I came to the same conclusion. On a purely ridiculous note, I think that it would be an injustice to deny future generations our awesome combination of DNA, and I like the idea that someday down the line, an ancestor of ours could have a massive impact on the human race. We could be the great, great, great, great, great grandparents of the man or woman that figures out how to teleport, Star Trek style."

Vicki rolled her eyes, smacking the back of her hand against his chest lightly. "Depriving future generations of our genes _would_ hurt the world, and your sister mentioned your dreams of grandiose family members far down the line. For me... I knew I was going to end up here, but my brain fought me on it. It took time, and then Beth said that it's such a mundane yet profound part of life, and that caught my attention because I don't remember the last time I did anything that's both mundane AND profound. And it's not just that I want to do something that is both of those at the same time, but that I can picture us ten years from now, still in the house but now with a kid or two there with us. Once again, that's a new experience for me, and it doesn't seem like something to avoid." Jeff started looking skyward, and Vicki cocked and eyebrow, confused by his action. "What are you doing?"

"Seeing if the sky is going to come crashing down on us."

"And why would it do that?"

"Because we made a decision after thinking about it rather than just doing it on the fly. Considering we made the decision to move in together in about three seconds and the decision to elope in about eight, I was worried that thinking something through and figuring out what was perhaps the smart answer AND the one we wanted would bring about the Chicken Little Apocalypse."

"The Chicken Little Apocalypse?"

"The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" Jeff said in a high pitched voice as he ran a couple circles around her waving his arms around.

Wide eyed but smiling, Vicki had to chew on the inside of her cheek to keep from breaking out into laughter. She didn't want toencourage insanity by laughing at it. When he stopped in front of her, she did clap a few times, though, as she would for any other performance. "Wow. That was impressive. Have you thought about taking up theater?"

"Sounds like a lot of work, and on the shallow side I'll stick with my six figure lawyer salary. So, even though we've decided to see if we can have a kid, now that we're coming up to the hotel I'm still thinking that bothering to get your dress off seems like a lot of work."

Rolling her eyes, Vicki patted his cheek with her hand, shaking her head at his eagerness. Apparently the idea of sex while still clothed was working for him. "You're going to hike my dress up and have your way with me in an attempt to get me pregnant? I feel like I should be offended by that."

"Considering the first time we had sex we did the exact same thing, minus the part about getting pregnant, I'm going to say that this is just a callback to how we got started, at least in bed. Therefore any part of you that feels it should be offended can go ahead and be at ease since we're just reliving an experience rather than doing something that would offend it."

"We were more near the bed than in it," Vicki mused. "Actually, it was more like near the bedroom. Ok, maybe we didn't get five feet from the front door."

"You didn't even wear underwear. You have no idea how hot that was."

She grinned and got a little closer to him. "I have a pretty good idea of how hot guys think that is. Why do you think I did it?"

"Please tell me you're doing it now."

"Sorry, I'm wearing a thong. Probably the next best thing."

"I can live with it," he said, smiling for a moment before pointing back over her shoulder with his chin. "Isn't that Lois Lane coming towards us?"

Looking back, Vicki found that it was indeed Lois Lane and her husband Clark Kent, of all people, walking towards them and looking to be caught up in their own conversation. She wondered if they were booked at the same hotel, or maybe one nearby as they spotted her and Jeff and stopped in front of them. "Vicki! Hey!" Lois said, smiling. "Look, I wanted to apologize for what happened earlier. We'd gotten caught up a little bit and when you introduced yourself, we were both kind of lost in thought. I should have had more than a stammering thank you when you came over. And now I'm being rude by not introducing myself." Lois turned and smiled at Jeff, offering her hand. "Lois Lane Kent. This is my husband, Clark."

"Jeff Powers, Vicki's husband. She's been making me read your stuff since we moved in together, and I really enjoy it," he said, shaking her hand before shaking Clark's.

"Thank you, very much. I'm glad that there are still people out there that read print media. So, if what you said still stands, about picking my brain over some of my investigations, I'd love to take you out to lunch tomorrow and tell you whatever you want to know. The only thing I don't share is source names, though with enough drinks I have been known to give up how I met them."

Surprised, Vicki shrugged. "Uh, yeah, sure. I'd love that, actually."

"Good, great. I know this little Italian place that I think you'll love. I'll meet you here at noon. And now, to avoid awkward silence and standing around, we'll let you guys go inside and go on to our own hotel. I'll see you tomorrow."

Watching Lois and Clark walk away, the word that popped into her mind was abrupt. Lois Lane seemed to be very abrupt. Turning back to Jeff, she smiled, entwining her hand with his once more. "So, where were we?"

"Dress hiking and impregnating. Let's get up to our room."

* * *

><p>Taking a sip of her water, Lois swallowed, smiled and shrugged. "Once I approached her with the documents I had obtained and let her know that one way or another she would be part of my article and that if she helped me, I had friends in the FBI that could make her disappear, she gave up the pretense that she wasn't involved and started feeding me information. Once the article was printed she testified in the trials and was put into WitSec." Finished, she took a bite of her parmigiana. A trip to Manhattan capped off with a trip to her favorite Italian place usually left her in a good mood for a week. This time she couldn't be so sure.<p>

"So basically," Vicki said as she sat across from her, resting her forearms on the edge of the table, "you got a tip from an old source about Intergang moving guns, stole papers from the secret stash of a crooked lawyer working for the group and then blackmailed her into corroborating what you'd found out, leading to other people and resulting in her dropping names and turning states evidence?"

Lois grinned. Her exploits always sounded a little better when somebody else described them. "That about covers it. I don't like to call it blackmail so much as uncomfortable coercion. For them, anyway. I have no trouble doing it to the people that deserve it. Some call it a flaw, but I call it a quirk."

"You do seem to have a couple of them, don't you?"

Shrugging again, Lois had to hold back from referring back to things that Chloe would know, but Vicki probably wouldn't. They'd had a full conversation about past and present articles and without a doubt, something had happened to Chloe so that she wasn't there anymore. She had been replaced, or this was proof that everybody had a doppleganger. Since Lois didn't believe that type of nonsense, it left her to try and figure out what had happened. Her movements were similar, but the differences were easily seen, at least to somebody that had known Chloe. For one thing her cousin had never worn glasses, but Vicki was wearing thick ones that hadn't been in style for years, same as she had the night before. It was almost like she was pulling a Clark, and in a sense she was, hiding in plain sight. Another difference Lois had noticed was the absence of the odd habit Chloe had developed of running a hand through her hair and messing it up a little bit. The only times Vicki had touched her hair was to pull loose strands into place, and the hair was a dark shade of brown, almost the same as her own hair, rather than its natural blonde.

The biggest difference Lois could see was how refreshingly unburdened and open Vicki seemed. After everything Chloe had endured through the years, from Smallville to the two weeks from hell that had started her on the path to trying to kill Lex, she had become insulated, almost expecting bad things to happen. That had become readily apparent by the time Chloe had ended up living in their basement. She wasn't afraid they were going to happen, she was waiting for them to happen, and she had ended up trying to protect herself, with little success. Her solution to stop the bad things from happening had left a lot to be desired. Everybody had a breaking point, and despite her best efforts to protect herself, and Lois's best efforts to pull her back, Chloe had reached hers.

Vicki, though... this was the person she had always imagined Chloe being, before there was anything in their lives like crazy meta humans and Luthors. There was no more guilt and inherent wariness. She had an easy smile and an even easier disposition. She wasn't worn down from years of seeing the worst happen and getting through it by the skin of her teeth. Lois wanted to reach across the table, kiss her on the forehead and run away, leaving her to a life where she had a great job at the _Gazette_ and a new husband because she knew if she started digging it would ruin something. But there were two questions she couldn't get out of her head that were driving her insane: where had this personality of Vicki Vale Powers come from and what had happened to Chloe? Frowning, Lois shook her head, exhaling slowly before meeting Vicki's eyes again. "How about you? You've certainly made waves since you moved to Gotham."

"Yeah, I guess I have. I think you can tell you've made it there when somebody sends goons to kill you."

Well, _that_ was a big thing Lois had hoped not to hear. "Obviously they weren't successful, but what happened?"

"They stabbed Jeff, and I fought them off with martial arts moves I didn't know I knew. He almost died, but fortunately the paramedics got there in time and after more hours of surgery than I was comfortable with, he was stitched up inside and out. After a few days of being comatose he woke up, and that was when I really realized how strongly I felt about him. I took care of him during his convalescence and ended up moving into his house." Suddenly Vicki smiled self-consciously, taking a sip of her wine. "Wow, that just kind of poured out. Didn't mean to end up giving you the brief history of Vicki Vale and Jeff Powers."

Lois could have done a little dance. She was getting really good insight into the life Chloe was leading, and it sounded like a pretty good life. Not perfect, but at least the people trying to kill her weren't super powered. "No, please, go ahead. Obviously I always like a good story."

"Well, we moved in together and _then_ told each other we loved each other. I liked the backwards nature of it because I'd never really allowed myself to get caught up in love before. I hadn't had a serious relationship since college, but I had gone through a long one. I didn't even intend for it to happen. When I said I realized how strongly I felt for Jeff, I was actually shocked at how I felt. The way I told it to his sister, Beth, and close friend, Sam, was that he slipped past my long term relationship material radar that I thought I had finely tuned over the years. Guess there's always some kind of stealth out there that can't be detected, because the day I met his sister and closest friends we eloped to Vegas with Beth in tow. And now here I am, two months later, married and deciding to be extremely typical by attempting to start a family." Lois slammed her mouth shut before Vicki could see her staring with it wide open, which was helped by the fact that the woman across the table was staring off into space, seemingly mesmerized by her own story. She seemed to realize everything she had said, though, and she blushed a little bit, shifting in her chair. "You are VERY easy to talk to. This might explain why you were always the one that Superman opened up to."

Recovering a bit from her shock - Chloe/Vicki was trying to have a baby? Good lord! - Lois smiled, hoping that it appeared as easy as she was trying to make it look, and scrambled a second for something to say. "Don't ask me how I got this way. Big secret."

"I'm sure it is," Vicki said around a grin before taking another bite of bread.

"You'll be shocked to hear that I have another question, but it's the last one, I promise." Vicki nodded, and Lois continued. "Why Gotham? You have a few awards to your name, so you could have picked from a lot of places to work. Obviously you made the right choice, having been nominated for another Kerth and meeting your husband there, but I'm curious why you went there in the first place."

"I was out in San Francisco, working for the _Chronicle_, when I was approached by none other than Bruce Wayne himself. He told me he had read a few of my pieces and would give me a third more than what I was making. I'd been there almost two years, which was pretty much as long as I'd been anywhere since I graduated from college, so I was starting to look around anyway. This just presented the opportunity. Plus, Gotham does have it's individual challenges, and I always like to be challenged."

"Bruce," Lois said slowly, and it finally started to click into place. He was the reason she had gone to Gotham, and was probably the reason Vicki Vale existed instead of Chloe Sullivan.

"Do you know Bruce?"

Wiping her mouth off with her napkin, Lois nodded. "He and I go back a bit. Are you two friends, or is he just your boss's boss?"

"Actually, we are friends. We dated a couple times, but that was more than enough for me. Too much flash, not enough substance. We're a lot closer as friends than we would have ever been as a couple. Do you get to Gotham often to see him?"

"Not really, no. Usually it was Bruce dropping in on Clark and I in Metropolis, not us seeing him in Gotham. I think I might like to switch things up this time, though, and drop in on him tomorrow."

* * *

><p>Walking through the front door of the Wayne Manor, Lois nodded at Alfred as she passed him. On a normal day she would have stopped for a short conversation with him, but her focus was elsewhere today. She had gone so far as to asking Alfred not to tell Bruce that they were there, which she had known was a lot to ask of him. She wanted Bruce as off guard as she could get him, which at best was very, very little. Taking the steps two at a time, she stopped on the landing between floors. "Bruce! Get your ass out here, now!"<p>

Waiting a moment, Lois was about to start going up the next set of stairs when Diana walked around the corner, wrapped in a dark, silk robe. She started descending the stairs, passing Lois with a smile. "I told him this would happen when you figured it out."

"Is he up there?"

"Yes, but he's in the shower. I suggest waiting for him in the bedroom."

"Thanks," she called out over her shoulder, bounding up the stairs again. After a quick trek down the hallway she finally arrived at his room, and heard the shower turning off as she went inside. Leaning back against the desk, she waited patiently for him, or at least as patiently as she could with all the pent up energy she was holding at bay. She would feel ten times better if she could just let him have it for a few minutes, but she'd settle just for going at him for a few sentences. When Bruce emerged from the bathroom, he was naked with a towel thrown over his shoulder, and stopped in the doorway when he spotted her. She pointed with her chin towards his groin. "Put that thing away so we can talk."

"Normally I'm one to do whatever he can to make a guest feel at home, but I have to say that you being in my bedroom and telling me to put my penis away is pushing the boundaries of that courtesy."

"Get over it, Bruce. You have a towel. Use it."

After a few seconds of hesitation he did just that, wrapping it around his waist. "To what do I owe this _pleasure_, Lois?"

"I met Vicki Vale two nights ago. Confused the hell out of me when my cousin came up to me and shook my hand without any idea that we'd spent a good portion of our lives together. Naturally I was curious, so I invited her out to lunch yesterday and she mentioned that you're the one who recruited her to the _Gazette,_ and are her friend as well. When she says that something clicks in my brain and suddenly I have this overwhelming urge to come to Gotham and kick the crap out of somebody." Walking up to him, she stopped a foot away. "I'm her family you arrogant son of a bitch. We're as close as sisters and you've been hiding her from me. You let me think she was _dead_."

"I didn't hide her from you. I hid her from everybody."

"Don't play the semantics game, Bruce. _I thought she was dead!_ I was barely holding my head above water, surviving and going forward for my children because I thought I had lost my cousin AND my husband, the two adults in the world I was closest to. All it would have taken is one phone call for you to let me know that she was alive and in hiding. I would have trusted you that she was safe!" Standing there, staring up at Bruce, Lois was tempted to stand on her tip toes so that she could look him straight in the eye, but settled for having to look up a little bit. It didn't make a difference. She knew that he would match her glare for glare for as long as she wanted. At least she'd been able to get out what she wanted to say. Bruce had certainly allowed her that, which she might thank him for later, but right now she was too keyed up from all the adrenaline. She backed away a few steps, realizing it was time to change the subject. "What happened to Chloe?"

"Chloe's fine. She's just... out."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"I'll explain it in a little while. First you're going to go downstairs while I get dressed so I can explain it to both you and Clark at once, because I don't want to repeat myself."

* * *

><p>"So you mapped the area of her brain dealing with memory, drugged her and changed her memories while stimulating memory centers to create the person known as Vicki Vale," Lois said, having ticked each item off on a finger, "all the while leaving Chloe intact but... but something. I don't even know how I could put into one word the fact that Chloe's personality is hibernating, in a way."<p>

"Actually, I think hibernating is a good way to put it."

"Well now that I have a term for it everything is going to be just fine. What the hell would prompt you to do something like this to her, Bruce? This is insane, and not the good kind of insane, but the kind that has given us so many problems over the years!"

"She told me that she didn't think that she would be able to stay away from Metropolis. It wasn't difficult to imagine that after years of being away she was enjoying being back with her family, even if she'd been having renewed feelings of guilt since returning. If she had simply tried living under an assumed name she claimed she would have gone back in a month, trying to figure out who Mr. Stanton was and wanting to see you again. That meant there was a chance for her to be discovered alive, and it isn't a reach to say she probably thought that might prompt further attacks not only against her, but against you and maybe even the city." Bruce walked around the kitchen island and pulled a bottle of water out of the refrigerator. "I didn't force her to use what I proposed, Lois, and I told her that it was risky and the technology had only had limited testing. She thought it through and decided that it would be a smart way to go about hiding. She's a different person now. Aspects are similar, if not the same, but names and dates are different. She doesn't have Chloe's colorful history, but a normal one instead."

"Vicki Vale is Chloe Sullivan without having moved to Smallville," Clark said quietly. "Always nice to hear something like that."

"Hey," Lois said, leaving it at that as Clark looked up at her and smiled.

"I know."

Nodding, Lois looked back to Bruce. "If hibernating is a good way to put what's happening with Chloe's personality, then there must be a way to wake her up."

"There is. And before you ask, I know it works. I woke her up once."

"Why?"

"Vicki was attacked once following the article for which she got the Kerth Award nomination. I left Chloe's martial arts training latent, so that if there was a situation like that Vicki would have the skills at her disposal without even knowing how to use them, acting on survival instinct. I was out of town on League business when this happened. When I did see her in person again it was at Jeff's house and she was all but living with him. I woke her up soon thereafter, knowing that she would want to figure out what she wanted to do about the situation of Vicki falling in love. I told her why I woke her up, but she asked me to make her Vicki Vale again after only an hour of discussion. The problem with her remembering everything about what happens to her as Vicki is that she remembers the emotions, too, and came to the same conclusion you did: Vicki is Chloe Sullivan minus her colorful history. When we talked she told me that Chloe Sullivan is dead, and though she didn't feel she deserved the opportunity she was being given, she was going to take it. I obliged her because it was her decision. Since then she married Jeff and, as you tell it, has decided to have children with him."

"Obviously you made Vicki hasty," Lois mumbled, rubbing her eyes as she did so, "because now I have an in-law!" Pushing out of her chair, Lois tried to get a grip on what she had been told. "What the hell am I supposed to do? I want Chloe back, because I believe the world is a better place with her in it, but how could I take her away from all the personal AND professional satisfaction she's found? She'd go back to feeling guilty about what happened with Lex and I'd feel guilty for making her feel guilty." Leaning on the back of her chair and facing away from Bruce and Clark, Lois crossed her arms over her chest. "I hate this type of situation!"

"I don't think you've actually _been_ in this type of situation before, Lo."

"Clark, I will throw you. I know I could do it with enough leverage."

"I'm going to go sit with Diana," Clark said, briskly leaving the room.

"We are the two biggest influences in Chloe's life, Bruce. There's something that can be done here, I feel it, but I can't figure out what it is."

"What's going to be done is this: we're going to let Vicki live her life, because Chloe made a choice to be happy as Vicki. When I put her under again I asked her to consider under what circumstances she wanted me to bring her back, and she said life and death only. I'm going to respect that wish. If you choose to integrate into Vicki's life somehow, that's up to you, but Chloe isn't going to come back unless there's necessity for it. Accept that."

Hearing Bruce get up and walk away, Lois cradled her face in her hands. Kicking the chair with her heel a couple times, she walked out of the room, unable to think of a good way to vent her frustration. She couldn't be the person that took Chloe's – no, Vicki's - happiness away, even if she did have the way to wake her up. The bottom line was that this wasn't about her own happiness, but letting Chloe live the life she deserved as Vicki Vale Powers. Lois just wished doing that didn't hurt so much.

* * *

><p>Sitting down in a plush chair so Lois could have it out with Bruce, Clark smiled at Diana. "I've had my differences with Bruce, but I think Lois is liable to make some of the arguments he and I had look like small potatoes."<p>

"Bruce does bring out that quality in people, doesn't he?"

"Yeah, but it doesn't take much with Lois." Closing his eyes, Clark took a second to revel in the feel of the sunlight streaming through the window, a small smile creeping across his face. Such a small thing, but he'd never realized how much he'd taken the sun for granted.

"How are you, Kal?"

"I'm fine. How are you, Diana?"

"I am well, thank you, but I was inquiring on a deeper level. It's been one month since you were released from your imprisonment."

Opening his eyes, Clark sighed and stared at the wall for a moment, trying to figure out what he should say and how he should say it. "I'm doing all right. Really, I am. There have been adjustments to make, and a few nightmares to forget, but I don't need all that much sleep anyway. It was certainly a surprise to come home to find I had another daughter, but she has helped me get back into the swing of things, as have Jacob and Cassidy. Being with my family is like riding a bike: it took a few tries to get it right, but now I'm going like I'd never stopped."

"You've yet to resume your duties as Superman."

Swallowing, he kept staring at the wall, unable to make himself face Diana. "Yeah, I know."


	19. Chapter 19

- Chapter 19

"Beth?" Knocking on the front door again as he opened it, Jeff heard the dull thump of footsteps coming up the basement stairs. Slipping his shoes off so he didn't track any mud inside, he left them by the door and folded up his umbrella, setting it down in the corner next to the door as he closed it. She emerged from a nearby doorway, jumping and dropping the basket of clothes she was carrying when she saw him.

"Jesus, Jeff! You scared the hell out of me!"

Walking over, he bent down and picked up the basket for her, taking it into the living room and putting it down on the coffee table. "I rang the doorbell and knocked a couple times, so I figured I'd come in and see if you were actually here."

"I invited you and Vicki over for dinner, so of course I'm here. Is she with you, or did you leave her in the car after scaring her to death, too?"

"That is both creepy and untrue," he called out to her as she went into the kitchen. She came back and handed him a bottle of water as she sat down across from him, pulling the basket over next to herself. "She had a meeting that she couldn't get out of and told me not to sit around waiting for her. I tried anyway, but she spotted me and glared, so I came over and she's taking a taxi. Want some help?" Pulling some things out of the basket, she kicked it over to him and he started folding the remaining small shirts. He did his best to sort them by size, considering Jenny had a couple years on Liv, but with more than a few of the shirts he ended up putting them on the pile that consisted of the undistinguishable.

"So?"

"I swear, I'm folding as fast as I can!" he said dramatically, pulling out another shirt and hiding his face behind it. "Please, no whip this time!"

"Quit being so dramatic. First of all, you volunteered, and second, I would never use a whip on you. My words are much more fun. Third, my 'so' has nothing to do with laundry. That I know of, there was one big question in your life before you and Vicki left for Manhattan. Since it had been mentioned that you two were considering parenthood I held my tongue because it's not my place to push one way or another. This is your decision and I wouldn't try to influence it. Doesn't mean I'm not curious."

"I appreciate that you're not attempting to influence our decision, and as a reward I won't leave you hanging. We've decided to go for it."

Beth's face lit up, and Jeff shook his head, passing her the clothes that he had folded. She quickly tempered the enthusiasm he could see trying to break through. "Is that the decision you were hoping for?" she asked.

"Yes, it is, and I can tell by the poorly hidden glee on your face that it's the one you wanted, too. Societal indoctrination finally caught up to me or I got slipped the 'yay children!' kool aid because I was definitely leaning towards the try side of the spectrum."

"Good, I'm glad. I like the decision for many reasons, but my favorite is the fact that I want you to experience child rearing where you don't get to hand off said child after a few hours."

"_That's_ your favorite reason? You never fail to find a way to surprise me."

"Hear me out. Ever since everybody around you started having children you have reveled in the fact that you can pick up and go home whenever you want and find silence, loud music or whatever. Like I said, you could hang around with your friends and their children, give the parents a bit of a break and then hand the children off. I've seen the joy in your expression whenever you get to do that because you knew that you had it _so_ easy. And before I go any further with this I'm going to stop, because I realize what I'm saying and really don't want to be inadvertently talking you out of becoming a parent."

"Don't worry," Jeff said, smiling. "I know what you're saying, and while I disagree with the use of the word joy, I won't dispute the fact that yes, I did enjoy being able to hand children off to their parents not only at the end of the day, but when they were crying, too. The crying hand off was always much better than the end of the day hand off. That was most of the last ten years, if not longer, ever since Will and Reid adopted Bella." Stopping a moment, he scratched at the back of his neck. "God, how long has it really been since they adopted her?"

"She turns thirteen in two months, so it's been over twelve years. But it really doesn't seem like it's been that long, because that means it will only be a few months until Jenny turns eight and a couple more after that until Liv turns six, and I'm not ready for them to be that old yet."

"Readiness doesn't really factor into the passage of time."

"That is not helpful." She pointed at him, waggling a finger at his face. "Remember, you turned forty, like, two months ago."

"You think that phases me? You remember that I approach my life in decades, right? I set my goals for the decade at the beginning of the first year, and approach it as a chunk of my life instead of year by year. I started it when I was twenty and it has worked very well for me the two times I've done it. When I turned twenty I set the goals of graduating from college with honors, graduating law school and getting a job at a good firm. When I turned thirty I set the goals of making partner at my firm and taking the time to enjoy life like I would have in my twenties had I not been so busy with school and work."

"I have to ask a scary question." Jeff nodded, and Beth continued. "Was one of your goals when you turned thirty to be married? I only ask because of how quickly you and Vicki got married, and I want that to be for the right reasons, not a goal you set when you turned thirty."

"No, of course not. That was exactly what it appeared to be: crazy, spontaneous and the smartest thing I've ever done."

"Good. May I ask what your goals are for the upcoming decade?"

"Off the top of my head, I'm going to have to say the first one will probably be to impregnate my wife, though I would prefer that one not to take the years of hard work that most of my goals have. Kind of." Jeff grinned for a second, but off Beth rolling her eyes decided to continue with his train of thought. "Other than that, I've yet to give them a whole lot of thought. Probably need to think of things to accomplish, but I own my house and I own my car, I'm paid very generously by my firm to head the legal department at the _Gazette_ and I found a woman I love like crazy. All in all, my thirties were a pretty damn good decade. Going to be difficult to top. But I also thought that about my twenties, so what do I know?"

"I want to go back to your recent crazy, spontaneous and smart thing."

"I don't know what you want to cover, because you were there."

"No, I'm not talking about the event itself. I'm talking about the persons involved. I'm still getting to know Vicki, and I really like what I know, but I don't think I'm a qualified Vicki Vale expert yet, so I'm going to hone in on you."

Jeff rolled his eyes and took a swig of his water. Swallowing, he smirked. "Shocking."

"Having known you almost your entire life, I've thought about what would make you want to run off to Vegas and elope with a woman you'd been with for about six months. I'm not saying that to be negative or derogatory or whatever, because I think you found a great wife, but I want to understand." She frowned and sighed. "I don't feel like I'm explaining myself very well, so let me put it this way: I know you, I love you, and because of those two things the out of character way you chose to get married is driving me crazy!"

Staring at her for a second with wide eyes, Jeff fought the urge to sit back a little further away from her, knowing she would take notice and throw one of the clean things that was freshly folded at him. No point in having to fold all over again. "I'm going to try and come at this in a way that I hope will help you understand, because I'm not sure the explanation in my head translates well into real world speak. What made you want to marry Chuck? And if you're tempted to say great sex, _please_ spare your brother that detail."

"What made me want to marry Chuck? Well, I'd have to say there were three major factors involved in that decision: we want the same things in life, he was very, very stable and is very attractive. Admittedly, the last is more shallow than the other two, but let me tell you, stability is a totally underrated factor when it comes to relationships, both short term and long. Once we'd been dating long enough and had really talked about things, we realized we both wanted two children and that I didn't mind being a stay at home mom while they're young. Obviously you hadn't decided on the children thing, but were those the types of things that made you want to marry Vicki?"

Holding up a finger, he said, "Stability? In the span of less than a year since we started our relationship I've been stabbed and almost died, had multiple long conversations with the most famous man in Gotham because he's her close, personal friend, married her and decided to start a family." Holding up a second finger, he continued. "The only thing I know that Vicki wants out of life is to make a difference. She refuses to be a meaningless footnote in history. And last, but most certainly not least, she is drop dead gorgeous," he said, holding up a third finger. "So at least falling into the shallow end of the pool is a family trait." After taking a quick sip of water, Jeff smiled. "The reasons I married Vicki are the same reasons I fell in love with her. First, she is the most intense person I've ever met in anything she does, but you can't tell unless you get to know her because she seems so easy going most of the time. The second reason is that she is one of the smartest people I've ever met. She challenges me like no woman I've ever been in a relationship with, and I've been with some smart women. Third, I'm never sure what's going to happen. She is almost the opposite of stable, which leads into the next and last reason, which is that she is the best person I know. She came to a city where she had never lived and has publically declared war on the omnipresent criminal element of Gotham. And she's winning! They sent goons after her, who stabbed and almost killed me, and not only did she nurse me back to health but did another article that took down more people connected to organized crime. She will not compromise, and if she gets hit she hits back just as hard. She's the Batman of journalism."

Smiling a little wider, Jeff shrugged and handed the clothes he had folded over to Beth, who proceeded to start separating them into different piles for each of the girls. "You asked me what's going on with me? I'm in love, Beth. Crazy, supernova exploding in my heart love that makes me say stupid things like supernova in my heart. Old Jeff is gone; in his place is new and improved, happy as he's ever been Jeff."

Beth eyed him for a moment before she looked away, but he could still see her smiling a little bit. "You sound ridiculous. I love that you've found somebody that does that to you. You used to be far too sane the when you were supposedly in love." She stood up, saying, "Come on. If dinner is going to be ready in time I better get you started helping out."

"Uh oh."

"Uh oh? I had to pawn my children off on Lily and Ian for the evening so that the four of us could have dinner without having to censor conversation for little ears. I say that means you get to help make dinner."

"No, not 'uh oh' about that, though you didn't have to send the girls away." Following Beth up the stairs, he opened up a dresser drawer in Liv's room so that Beth could put some clothes away. "Actually, I like it when they're here with us because it's good bonding time for them with Vicki. Usually when someone is as close to his sister's family as I am, the nieces get more opportunity to acclimate to the new person in his life. Instead they met Vicki _after_ she became my wife and, technically, their aunt. I want them to love her like they love me."

"I don't know that the girls love anybody quite like they love you," Beth said as they switched rooms, putting Jenny's stuff away in her room. "But I understand that and want the same thing. It was unfortunate that they didn't get a chance to get to know Vicki before you two eloped, but you failed to bring her by in a timely fashion, so I believe the fault in this situation rests on your shoulders."

"I got stabbed! When was I supposed to bring her by the house?"

"You should always introduce a new girlfriend to your sister and best friends as soon as possible, Jeff. I thought that I'd finally gotten that into that thick skull of yours."

"Again, stabbed. Literally seconds after we decided we were a couple and not just dating. All blame lies at the feet of those with the pointy knives."

"Fine," she said, exaggerating a shrug by rolling her eyes. "You get a free pass. And I promise, next time you and Vicki are here the girls will be too, and she will get plenty of time to bond with them. They do like her, and by the time you two have a Jenny and Liv of your own they'll love her. Speaking of which..."

She trailed off as they walked back downstairs, and Jeff nodded, having foreseen the topic coming up. "Go on. My life is an open book."

"Is your wife aware of that?"

"Aware of and fine with. She thinks it's great that you and I are as close as we are and share as much as we do." She nodded her approval as they walked into the kitchen, with Beth pulling out an onion and handing it to him. "See, this is what the 'uh oh' was about. Whenever I have to help with dinner I end up slicing the onion. And you don't buy the regular onions. You buy the extra strength, guaranteed to make your eyes water for half an hour onions."

"They taste the best, and we're getting off topic. I want to inquire about the decision you and Vicki made to take on the full time job of parenthood. I know that you two were considering it separately and together. Which one of you finally made the suggestion to go ahead and start trying?"

Grabbing a knife out of the drawer, Jeff also got a dish towel rested it on his shoulder so he would have something to wipe tears from his eyes. With a resigned sigh, he started slicing, and it only took a second for his eyes to start rebelling. "Vicki was the one to suggest we go for it. Why?"

"_Really_? I would have bet money that it was going to be you that first suggested it." Without any warning he heard her smack herself in the forehead and groan. "Crap, I _did_ bet money that you were going to be the one to suggest it. I owe Sam fifty bucks."

Jeff wanted to turn and stare at her, but he was too busy rubbing his eyes with the dish towel to do so. He wasn't even halfway done and he was already prepared to abandon the chopping as a failed endeavor. "You bet on which one of us would make the suggestion that we have children? Why in the world would you do that? Wait, no, don't tell me. This falls into one of those weird bets you and Sam make. First there's the main bet, then there are two sub bets, and which of the sub bets that is used depends on the outcome of the original bet. The one part of these things I like is guessing the bets, so I'll say the original bet was whether or not we were going to try for children, and the sub bets were if we decided to try who made the suggestion, and the same thing for if we didn't try."

"You are correct, sir," Beth said before giving him a quick pat on the shoulder. He couldn't see her through the squinting and tears, but assumed she had made a hasty retreat while drying his eyes with the towel again. "I bet that you two would not try. I also bet that if you decided to try, it would be you who made the suggestion. Thus, Sam wins $30 for the first bet and $20 for the second. You would think I'd have learned by this point not to bet against her when predicting human behavior, but I can't seem to learn my lesson."

"Boo. Hoo." Chopping a couple pieces into a more manageable sizes, Jeff pushed the plate of onion away and started working on drying his eyes again as he walked away. "So, first you were betting against it happening, then you bet that I was going to be the one to take the lead on it? The first one I understand because the decision really was a coin toss, but why would you think that I would suggest we go for it? I wasn't going to say a thing until Vicki made a decision one way or another, and if she decided she didn't want to go for it that was that. Sure, I'd voice my opinion, but I wouldn't push her to do anything she was uncomfortable doing. Assuming all goes well, my part, at least physically, is over pretty quickly. She'll be doing all the morning sickness and weight gaining and the other twelve dozen things women go through during pregnancy."

Blinking a few times, Jeff found that he was regaining the ability to see without having his eyes sting painfully, which he certainly found to be a plus. Beth walked over to him and kissed him on the cheek, saying, "I'm proud of you. You've been listening."

"What choice did I have? When Will and Reid adopted Bella suddenly babies became a topic of conversation every time more than two people in our group of friends got together! It started with babies, moved on to marriage, then to pregnancy and then children, children, children, children and children. Now that everybody is married and has children they're always the first topic at hand, sometimes to the point of absurdity." Leaning back against a counter, Jeff dabbed at his eyes against before tossing the dishtowel on the counter, his vision now back to normal and his eyes only stinging lightly. "While I'm now married and attempting to become a father and all the things I learned will come in handy, I learned them against my will! Hand to God, I have no idea what we used to talk about before everybody started having children. Do you? It's absurd how much that one topic can dominate conversation."

Beth took the chopped onions away, dumping them into and plastic bag and sealing it before putting them in the fridge. "Let's break this down, because there's a reason that the listed topics became big things in the group. Once I came back to Gotham thirteen years ago our groups of friends merged into one big group, not including spouses except for Will and Reid, who were all ready married to each other, and they got Bella six weeks after I got home. Soon after that Richie married Lindsay and Art got engaged to Pat. Sam found out she was pregnant the next year, three weeks after Art's wedding, and six months into her pregnancy I met Chuck. From there, running down the line, and this will take a minute, Sam had Tommy, Garrett married Helen, Becky married Julio, Art had Benny, Donovan married Karen, I married Chuck, Richie had Eli, Erin married Aaron, Garrett had Paul, Donovan had Troy and Kevin, Becky had Roberto, Dana married Sean, Lily Married Ian, Erin had Christina, I had Jenny, Lily had Eva, Garrett had Lauren, Art had Alison, Donovan had Cade, and Becky had Kaylee. Following that there was a slow eighteen months or so before Erin had Naomi, Dana had Maggie, Lily had Owen, I had Liv, Dana had David and then Lily had Warren. Then you have to skip ahead to three years ago when Sam married Kyle, who brought along his daughter Megan."

After stopping and sucking in a deep breath, she continued. "And then finally, _finally_, the lone single of the group among twelve married couples, the last man standing against the forces of marriage, one Jeff Powers, succumbed to the love of Vicki Vale. Now, with the couple still in the early months of their marriage, they have decided to attempt what all others in the group have undertaken before them: parenthood. Will our heroes join the vast brethren of parents? How will their young relationship handle the stress of children? Join us next time when we answer those questions... and more!"

Jeff could only raise an eyebrow, trying to hold in the laughter that Beth's crazy little finish to the list of their friends getting married and having children. "What the hell was that?"

"I may, and I stress may, have been watching too many old movies and cartoons with the girls recently. Pretty impressive that I have that long list of marriages and birthdays memorized in order isn't it?"

"Very. And may I just say that the year when Christina, Jenny, Eva, Lauren, Alison, Cade and Kaylee were born was insane? Because it was. Men had to run for cover. I'm shocked that there wasn't an assault blamed on hormones."

Beth smirked at him before she pulled some steaks out of the refrigerator, feeling them for a second before setting them down on the counter. "You're hilarious, Jeff. All of the husbands stood by their wives with gusto that year so there was no need for assault due to hormones. Now, assuming you and Vicki do have a baby within the next twelve to eighteen months, barring any accidents by couples within the group, your son or daughter is going to be a bit stranded when it comes to children his or her own age within the group."

Jeff wasn't quite sure where Beth was going with her line of reasoning. "That is true, but what point are you trying to make?"

"Would that age difference prompt you two to try for a second child?"

"We _just_ decided to try for a first one! How could you possibly be asking me about a second? Do you want nieces and nephews _that_ _much_?"

"These are the kinds of things that you have to think about going into parenthood! Whether you guys want one or two is a good thing to establish in the near term simply so you know what's happening, and from all our conversations I can be pretty sure that what Vicki likes is to know what's going on. Her investigative pieces would tell you that, even if you'd never met her." Holding up a hand, she stopped herself and smiled. Jeff had seen her do that so many times that it reassured him that she wasn't going to surprise him with something way out there. "Look, I'm just saying that it's something to think about."

"All right, consider me thinking and I'll bring it up with Vicki. Happy?"

"Happy." She held out a head of lettuce to him, which he took, pulling the plastic off of it before taking it to the sink to wash it off. "And I really am happy for you two, Jeff. I want you two to have all the happiness in the world, and if finding that happiness includes having a baby, I'm a little happier."

"See, that's what I don't get," he said, turning off the water and shaking some excess moisture of the head of lettuce before dropping it into a bowl to break apart. "Why is it that people are so happy when other people decide to have children? I understand congratulations when you find out the couple is pregnant and when the baby is born, but just the decision to try for a baby making people happy has never made sense to me. I mean, yeah, I'll say congratulations if somebody tells me that because that's what's expected; I've congratulated people on deciding to have children a lot in the past fifteen years. Problem is, I feel like I'm congratulating the person or couple on the decision to have unprotected sex. It's weird."

"You _would_ see it that way," Beth said quietly, barely loud enough for Jeff to hear. He caught her rolling her eyes out of the corner of his eyes as he continued to break down the lettuce. "It's not about that, Jeff. It's congratulating people on deciding to take a big step in their lives. You're well aware of that fact that it's a tough decision whether or not to start a family, and you and Vicki didn't even have to wrestle with the financial side of the issue like Chuck and I did when we decided to start trying, considering you all ready own your house and car, Vicki sold her apartment for a tidy sum after you two moved in together and you had a good bit of money saved up anyway. It's such an all encompassing thing, such a life changer that when people make that decision you don't say 'Are you sure? What about this, that and the other thing?' You tell them that you're happy for them not only because you should be, but because you should be supportive."

Jeff held up his hands in surrender, the heat in Beth's voice rising with each sentence. "All right, I get it. The way you reacted you'd think I'd asked you why one should congratulate people when the child is actually born. And you know what? It's happening again. This whole conversation has been about babies, people having babies and everything in between! And you still haven't answered my question about what we talked about before everyone started having children because instead you went on to list, in order, all of our friends getting married and subsequently having children."

"Oh, I only did that because I have no idea what we talked about back then. It _has_ been about thirteen years since everybody started getting married and having children."

"Maybe it's just mass insanity," Jeff mused, "sanctioned by church and state. People get to a certain age and suddenly the direction of their lives turns on a dime and is suddenly about pairing up and procreating."

"This coming from the man that, when coming up to his fortieth birthday found a woman, fell in love with her, and right before that birthday eloped in Vegas, then roughly two months later decided with his new wife to see if they could start a family of their own. Personally, I think that you're just a late bloomer." He was about to argue, but she continued before he could get started. "It's not like you don't have a history of it. You were 5'5" going into your freshman year of college, and were 6'1" coming out of it. Didn't have your first girlfriend until you were twenty-one, and I'm assuming you were a virgin until sometime after that because you were really shy around women before Kelly came along. Your first long term relationship wasn't until you were twenty-five. So really, thinking about it, this is all making a lot more sense. Of course you weren't going to do things on the same time frame as everybody else! God, I can't believe it took me until now to figure this out. I think Sam is going to get a kick out of this little theory of mine as to why everything is happening for you now rather than closer to the age of thirty."

"You know that if you tell Sam this inane conclusion you've come to that she's going to put me under her psychological microscope and tell me why I do what I do when I do it. And that doesn't even have anything to do with her being a psychologist, because she'd been doing it to me as long as I've known her!"

He saw Beth grin as he turned, placing the bowl of lettuce in front of her. "That does seem to have been one of her favorite things for about twenty-five years now, hasn't it? But then, she always has been somewhat quirky in her own way."

"We're all quirky in our own way, Beth. Sam is downright odd."

"I think that's more your perception of her than how she really is. Anyway, I am going to inform her of my conclusion that you're simply a late bloomer. It's not like we haven't talked about you before." Jeff sighed, well aware of what was coming. What she had failed to say was that it wasn't like she hadn't told him all about them talking about him before. "We've discussed you at length through the years. Why? Because I was worried about you. I didn't want you to be alone, and it took all your recent personal life accomplishments to finally make me realize that I shouldn't have worried because you weren't just a late bloomer physically, but emotionally, too. It wasn't that you didn't want the same things as everybody else, it was that you weren't ready for them. Man, Sam is going to LOVE this! I can't wait to talk to her about it later tonight."

"Hey, I was plenty ready to get married at any point over the past ten years! Just because I wasn't taken over by the need to find somebody to spend my life with around the age of thirty does not mean I wasn't ready, it just means I didn't want or need to be married. It wasn't like I didn't have girlfriends. I was just happy in my bachelorhood."

"Oh, I'm sure you were, but the women you were in relationships with were never women that you intended to be with long term. Even Serena, whom you were with over two years! You confessed to me that you never thought about proposing, that she was aware of that and was part of the reason why she broke up with you." She walked over to him and pulled him into a hug, which he reciprocated solely out of habit. "But I get it now," she said as she released him. "I understand that you just weren't ready for everything until now, which is why we're here making dinner for when my husband and your wife join us." Beth moved away, quietly smiling to herself as she went about continuing to make dinner.

"Well at least one of us gets it, though I thought I already got it," Jeff grumbled, moving to sit down at the kitchen table. As soon as had sat down the doorbell rang, and Beth seemed utterly oblivious to it, still smiling as she moved around the kitchen. "I'll get it," he said, standing up again and slowly making his way to the door. Opening it, he found Vicki on the other side, and couldn't help smiling as he let her in, giving her a quick kiss as she passed him. "How was the meeting?"

"There was something about budgets and deadlines, but none of it applied to me because I rarely use my per diem and have yet to miss a deadline in my time at the _Gazette_. How has your evening been so far?"

"It was going pretty well until a few minutes ago, when Beth labeled me a late bloomer."

"You never told me that you were a late bloomer."

"I wasn't aware I _was_ one until Beth declared it to be the truth about my life. To sum up a long conversation, Beth was betting against us trying for a baby, loving you feels like a supernova in my heart, I have a long list of friends that have had a longer list of children, congratulating people for deciding to try for a baby is not the same as congratulating them for having unprotected sex and neither my sister nor I has any idea what we talked about with our friends before everybody got married and started families. Then it turned to how you and I should discuss whether we want more than one child and that I married you because it wasn't until I was approaching forty that I was emotionally ready for marriage and potential fatherhood. Thus, I'm a late bloomer."

Vicki stared at him wide eyed, and suddenly looked down at her watch. "How long have you been here?"

Moving around behind her so that he could see her watch, he tried to remember about what time he'd gotten to Beth's house. "I think it's been about forty-five minutes. Certainly no more than an hour."

"That's a hell of a conversation for a maximum of an hour."

"Seems about like what we usually do." Bending down, Jeff casually started kissing the spot where Vicki's neck met her shoulder. "You taste good," he said, grinning as she started squirming a little bit.

"Mmmm... while I appreciate the good feelings, why are you kissing me there when we can't do anything about those feelings until we get home?"

"Because I love you like crazy and it makes me smile to watch you get a little bit squirmy from being turned on."

She turned around to face him, frowning, though he could tell that it was more of a mock frown than one with any real annoyance behind it. "So you want to get me all hot and bothered then leave me hanging right before we eat dinner with your sister and brother-in-law? I don't think you're a late bloomer, I think I just have a higher tolerance for your mischief."

"That reasoning right there? That's why I married you. Anything that proves my sister wrong can't possibly be wrong in my book."

"Not exactly what I was striving for, but I'm taking your happy reaction as a positive. Now, back to that summing up of your conversation with Beth. What is this about us needing to discuss whether or not we want more than one baby?"

Jeff shrugged, and wrapping an arm around Vicki's waist started slowly guiding her towards the kitchen. "Let me preface this by saying that she and I were discussing our group of friends, and she went on to list the order in which everyone got married and had children. This led her to the point that should you and I have a baby, barring any accidental pregnancies by other couples in our group of friends, said child will be significantly younger than any of the other children. I'm guessing, based on a timetable of us getting pregnant in the next six to eight months, there would be about a five year difference. Anyway, that potential age difference led to Beth saying we should discuss whether or not we want more than one, I assume because she thought our son or daughter would be somewhat isolated in terms of age. I am not, however, putting it past her to try and get a second niece or nephew out of us."

He looked over and found Vicki chewing on her lip. "That is something to think about, isn't it? I was an only child, and despite having friends who fought all the time with their siblings I always kinda wished I'd had a brother or sister. I was lonely at times, especially after my mom split, leaving my dad and I high and dry. For a long time it seemed like my dad wasn't really there, so it would have been nice to have somebody to lean on."

Jeff nodded. "As much as she had a tendency to get on my nerves, I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't had Beth when our parents died. We kept each other sane when the grief was threatening to overwhelm us. And you see how close we are. I think we'd be close, maybe not as close as we are, but still close if our parents hadn't died. It's nice, though, having a sister like her in my life."

"That seems to be arguments for multiple children by both of us. Let's not put anything in stone quite yet, because who knows what happens, but for the time being should we plan on seeing if we can't have two?"

"I think that sounds like a plan. Took a lot less time to decide to have two than it did to decide to try and have one."

They stopped short of the kitchen, Vicki turning to face him again. "I've heard it put the following way by multiple couples: if you have one, you may as well go ahead and have another. Why? I have no idea because they never really expanded on it, and to be honest I wasn't really interested in the explanation until now. Like I said, nothing is set in stone, but the amended plan is have one, see how it goes and then have another. Hopefully we're not too old to have another by that point."

"Now we're potentially giving my sister two nieces and nephews to dote on and spoil. She already loves you, Vicki, but with these kinds of decisions she's going to love you more than she does me pretty soon."

They walked into the kitchen and Beth greeted Vicki with a smile. "Hey! Did Jeff tell you the good news? I finally figured things out about him that have escaped explanation or have been poorly explained for years."

"He did mention something about blooming later than most people."

"Here, please, sit," Beth said, indicating a chair to Vicki as she sat herself. She then launched into a detailed explanation that left Jeff with nothing to do but shake his head and momentarily reconsider the decision he and Vicki had made to have two children rather than one. Sometimes siblings could be highly overrated.


	20. Chapter 20

- Chapter 20

Walking into the apartment, Clark tip toed around various toys left on the floor as he made his way towards the kitchen, doing his best to stay quiet as he passed Lois as she slept on the couch with Devon curled up in her arms. Clark smiled at their youngest as he spotted her open eyes before speeding the groceries away. Ever so gently he lifted Devon away from Lois, covering the latter's legs with a blanket that was folded on the back of the couch. She shifted as he finished, moaning and mumbling, "Missed this... so close..." before falling back into quiet slumber. He didn't recall her mumbling in her sleep much through the years, but when she did it was usually because she had something on her mind. He would have to ask her about that when she woke up. Clark was hardly surprised that she was tired enough to fall asleep with Devon in her arms. She had refused his offers to sleep for the past week when Devon had woken up as loud as ever and had insisted on being up with her through the wee hours of the night. Maybe it was the fact that she had been so exhausted from parenting by herself during his disappearance, but when he had gotten back she'd been happy to sleep while he was up with Devon, even though the baby hadn't known him very well yet. Now it seemed like she was falling back into the habit of trying to do it all herself, insisting that she be up with her even if he was already up. It wasn't the _exact_ opposite of how she'd been when Jacob and Cassidy were born, but it was close, because she had been trying to work at the same time. She had even gone so far as pumping before bed every night to make sure that there was milk available for them. He hadn't been around quite as much then because of Superman duties, but now he was always available and she all but outright refused to take advantage of his needing less sleep. It was especially ridiculous considering she had started working again for two publications, which even without two young children and a baby was a crazy undertaking, at least the way Lois worked.

Making a face at Devon and causing her to smile her little smile that somehow made him love her even more, Clark was thankful that his mom had taken Jacob and Cassidy for the day to allow them some time to run errands and have some alone time with Devon that wasn't the middle of the night. Walking into the master bedroom, Clark sat down on the edge of the bed and propped Devon up on his leg so that she was facing him. "Mom fell asleep! Can you believe that? She's all sleepy because you've been a night owl and she wants to be up with you, but maybe we can convince her that we'd be all right if she slept. What do you think?" Flailing, Devon gurgled at him, which Clark took as a sign that she agreed with him. "You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to seeing the person you become. In fact, I think it's time that you and I have a conversation that I had with your brother and sister when they were about your age. Now, to start out, this isn't going to be me telling you how life is going to be or what you can expect from life, because who knows how that will turn out, right? Just take your dear old dad for example: when I was your age I wasn't even on this planet yet! Can you believe that?" After another bout of flailing, Clark took the hint and pulled her close in to his body again, a place where he had found she thought was much more comfortable. She calmed and Clark started again. "See, I'm not originally from Earth. I know that I look exactly the same as your mom and everybody else that you've ever met, but I'm different, and by extension that means you're different. After I got to Earth, your grandma and grandpa didn't know where I had come from or how it was possible that they had found a little boy next to a spaceship, but they took me in anyway, adopted me and raised me as their son. That's why your last name is Kent. Who knows what would have happened if not for your grandparents, and I'm thankful every day that they found me.

"So what does it mean that you're different? That's a good question. So far it means that at age five your brother can run faster than any full-blooded human on the planet. Right now your mom and I are just waiting to see if and when other gifts like that develop in Jacob, in Cassidy and eventually in you. For all we know you could all develop powers differently, maybe having some and not others. We don't know what to expect because there have never been children like you before. Until your brother was born there had never been a human-kryptonian hybrid born to a fully empowered kryptonian, and the fact that such a combination of genes was possible was a shock to everybody involved! I actually went to a special place in the arctic, my Fortress of Solitude, and asked a copy of my birth father, your grandfather by blood, how likely it was that Lois and I could have children. He said that not only was it unlikely we'd be able to conceive, but it was just as unlikely that your mom would be able to carry a hybrid child to term. I never told your mom about my asking Jor-El about the odds because the outlook was so grim." Breaking out into a smile, Clark shifted Devon into his other arm, finding her still wide awake and watching him. He had half expected her to be asleep, or at least sleepy, by this point. The vibrations of his voice when he held her against his chest usually put her out like a light. "But there was a happy ending to the story, and you know what? You and your siblings are that happy ending. Not only did we have a son when it seemed impossible, but we had two daughters, too. That makes you our last little miracle, Devon, and I can only hope that one day you'll be just as happy as your mom and I are that you're here. Right now the world is a big, scary place, but it'll open up to you as you get older. Sometimes it will seem even bigger than it does when you're little, especially when you can comprehend the scope of some of the bad things that happen. But know this: with as big as the world is, with all the bad things that always seem to be happening, the world is full of good people. If there's one thing that you take away from my life and what I've done with it, I well and truly hope it's that people are good at their core, and when given a choice will do the right thing. Now, of course, there is a difference between doing the right thing and doing what one believes is the right thing, because circumstances can twist and change perspective until doing the wrong thing seems like doing the right thing. That's one of the toughest lessons to learn in life, that people doing things you condemn truly believe they're doing what is right.

"That's why you have your mother and I. We're going to be there for you every step of your childhood, annoy you every day of your adolescence and be proud of whatever you choose to do with your life when you reach adulthood. Anytime you have a question you can come to us. Whenever the world feels too big you can come to us. Anything you ever need, don't hesitate to come to your mom and I because we'll do our best to move mountains to make sure your life is as good as it can possibly be. I'm telling you this now because in a few years you won't want to sit still, some years after that you won't want to listen, and then you'll be an adult and all ready have your life well in order, or at least that's the plan." Moving her so she was resting against his shoulder, Clark stood and started walking around the bedroom slowly. "I wish I could promise you a simple life, but given the genes you inherited from me that will likely give you abilities, and the genes you inherited from your mother that will likely give you a tendency to do crazy things without thinking first, well, you'd have to work hard to keep it simple. _I_ tried to keep it simple for a long time and all I did was make taking that next step more difficult. Yet another reason your parents are useful: if there's a mistake to be made, we've probably made it. Twice. Most of the time it was good intentions leading bad places. Others times are probably better left for when you're older." Pausing, he reconsidered. "Actually, now is probably the best time because you have no idea what I'm saying. Let's start with a mistake your mom made that you'll never get to hear when you're old enough to understand. This one time there was a senator, a very exclusive club and a star spangled bikini. Your mom and I-"

"I can hear you, Smallville!"

Wincing as he stopped next to the door he had stupidly left open, Clark figured he had a decision to make. He could close the door and pretend it hadn't happened until she came and got Devon so she could eat or came and just growled at him. Or he could got out, hand Devon to her and fall on a sword of kryptonite. Sighing, he looked at Devon. "You'd think I would know how good her hearing is by now, wouldn't you? I guess my own hearing abilities cause me to underestimate hers. And remember, a kryptonite sword is nothing compared to the ire of Lois Lane Kent." Devon started rubbing her cheek against his shoulder, and as much as he knew she couldn't understand, he thought knowing that might have been instinctual for her. Avoiding a pissed off Lane did seem like something one should try to pick up in-utero if at all possible.

Walking into the living room, he sat down next to Lois and waited silently as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "How long was I asleep?"

"I got back fifteen minutes ago and you were out. Before that, only Devon knows. She was wide awake when I got home."

"I can't believe I fell asleep. I was singing to her, seeing if she wanted to go down for a nap and instead lulled myself to sleep." She looked around for a second before finding what she wanted, then groaned. "God, I slept two hours, and you've only been home fifteen minutes? My poor Girly, laying here with me while I slept." She reached over and pulled Devon out of his arms before adjusting her shirt and bra so Devon could nurse. "I should have had her fed half an hour ago. Can't believe I fell asleep."

"You've been up with Devon and I four nights in a row, Lois. You were in desperate need. Take tonight off and get some good sleep under your belt. Pump before bed, just like you did with Jacob and Cassidy, and then let me take care of the rest. It isn't like it used to be; I'm not going to have to wake you up so I can leave. You can get some deep sleep, with lots of dreams and waking up refreshed."

"I appreciate the offer, Smallville, but I'm fine."

Clark raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Lois, you sang yourself to sleep instead of singing Devon to sleep. That's not fine. That's being very tired and needing rest. And let me handle the load when it comes to our _Weekly_ article."

She looked over at him, shaking her head. "Not going to happen."

"Lois, let me take over some of the load. Please."

"Do you think I can't do it?"

Clark sat back a little bit, extremely confused by what he'd just heard. "What kind of question is that?"

"One you should answer."

"I, well... I mean, of course I don't think that! But you don't _have_ to do it all, Lois. I'm here. You can lean on me a little bit, especially now that I'm bringing in money again by being a part of the regular _Weekly_ staff. You don't have to work two jobs anymore. You can pick one and stick with it."

"You just said that I can handle it, so that's exactly what I'm going to do: handle it. Now can we drop the subject? I'm trying to have a little mother-daughter time here, and answering all these questions is getting in the way of that."

With that she turned away from him and started cooing at Devon, leaving Clark sitting there, flabbergasted and feeling summarily dismissed. Getting up, he rubbed a hand across his face, walking into the bedroom to work on his solo piece for Perry. He opened his laptop and pulled up his research, but had trouble focusing on his work. Using his thumbs to rub at his temples, he leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes as he let his hands fall away. Lois had a history of brushing him aside, sure, but 99% of that was from before they'd started dating, and the times since had been when she was _really_ angry at him. What was there that she could be mad at him about? The story he'd been about to tell Devon? Things like that had never seemed to draw her ire before, at least not her genuine ire. His mind going back to falling on a kryptonite sword, he got up and went back out into the living room, sitting down next her on the couch again. "Did I do something wrong?"

She looked over at him, looking both confused and irritated. "What?"

"If I did something that made you angry I have no idea what it was unless you've become more sensitive about me telling Devon things about our past that aren't the most flattering for you. If that is the case, I'm sorry and will wait until she can understand the stories to tell them to her."

"You didn't do anything to make me angry. And I better be there when you're telling those stories so I can make sure you aren't making them sound as bad as they actually were. Glossing over a few facts here and there to make some of the escapades sound less ridiculous is not going to hurt any of the children. And remember," she said, smirking at him, "I have as many stories about you as you have about me."

"True," he muttered. The fact that she wasn't angry about something bugged him, though. "So what happened a few minutes ago? I felt like I was being dismissed from the room by the General."

"I was acting like the General?" She made a show of shuddering before smiling and sighing. "You know how I am when I'm just waking up, Smallville. Add in that I was pissed off at myself about having fallen asleep with Devon in my arms, was having an intense dream that left me wanting and sore boobs from her not having eaten and my not having pumped and you end up with me venting at you. I'm sorry that I made you feel like I was brushing you off. I try to hold back my General-ness when it threatens to come out, but I guess our parents influence is there no matter how much it pissed us off."

"I just thought I had done something that pissed you off and wanted to clear the air." He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, smiling for a moment before it wilted away and he was frowning again. "But here's where I'm going to keep going, and probably at risk to my health. Do you still trust me with Devon?"

There was a moment, as she turned and faced him, where he thought he could actually see the white hot rage pass across her eyes, like when people said his eyes glowed as he used his heat vision. "That is a dumbest, most _offensive_ question you've ever asked me, Clark. You can bet your ass that I'm mad at you now. I can't believe you would EVER ask me that!"

Taking off his glasses and tossing them on the coffee table, Clark held his frustration in check so he could make his point without further accusation. He probably should have found a better way to word that accusation, but it had gotten out before he'd thought about how it really sounded. "I'm sorry, Lo, but it's like you don't want to let me do anything for her anymore. For the past week, ever since we got back from the Kerth Awards and the side trip to Gotham, you've taken over every aspect of her life, like you don't want my help or think I'm able to help. I'm not saying that I'm not involved, because I am, but it's like you only trust yourself to take care of her whenever she needs anything. I can count on one hand the number of feedings and diaper changes I've done since we got back when you weren't at work, and I can't count the times I've put her down for a nap, or for the evening or even in the middle of the night because whenever I try you take her and do it yourself. You're her mom and I understand that you want to take care of her every second of every day, but in the big picture you're the mother of three children five and younger and are writing for two publications! I know you so well that I don't doubt you could do all that by yourself for an indefinite amount of time if you had to, but you don't! I'm here. This is more how I would have imagined things were going to be when I got back. You'd been doing everything for yourself and the children for months, so it would have made sense. But you welcomed me back and let me do as much as I wanted to with no questions asked. Now you've taken a death grip on doing it all when it's not necessary. I love you, and do not want to watch you run yourself into the ground when I'm here to help." Settling back into the couch, he noted that Lois was still watching Devon, whom she had just switched from one side to the other. During his whole little spiel she'd kept her eyes trained on Devon like she hadn't wanted to look at him. Perfect. Exactly what he'd been going for. In trying to ask her to do things like she had been before he'd insulted her trust in him and made her not want to look at him. From now on he was putting what he wanted to say on paper first so that he wouldn't end up being such an insulting dope.

"I don't want you to think that I'm monopolizing time with Devon, Clark. It doesn't feel like I am. This feels like the way I've always done things because I've never had you around for so much uninterrupted time. When you got back from being held captive I was able to let go of how things were because I was so exhausted I didn't know how long I was going to be able to keep doing what I was doing. Until our trip I felt like I could keep going with how we were doing things. But ever since we went to Gotham I haven't wanted to be more than a few feet from Devon if I didn't have to be. It feels like normal parenting to me, at least at this point in her life. Given that, and the fact that she's our last baby, I'm having a difficult time keeping how much time I spend with her in perspective. And then..."

Lois trailed off, frowning, and Clark nudged her foot with his. "And then what?"

"And then we saw Chloe," she said quietly, finally looking over at him. "But she wasn't Chloe anymore. She was Vicki. Vicki Vale Powers, with husband Jeff. She met a guy, married him and is trying to start a family and I had no idea. I think about her every day. After everything she had been through she was happy, blissfully so, and for that reason I may never see _my_ Chloe again because who knows if Bruce will ever find it necessary to pull her out of her hypno-trance or whatever it is that he did to her." Lois looked away, closing her eyes for a second before opening them and looking at Devon again. "Our last conversation was me pawning Jacob and Cass off on her so I could get some work done. We had these great conversations that would last for hours if we let them. We discussed anything and everything under the sun. The last time we spoke was nothing. It was barely a conversation because I kept talking over her while ushering her out the door with the kids, thanking her for the break and telling her I'd see her later. That was it. My last conversation with Chloe was me barely letting her get a word in because I needed a break from my children." She stopped, exhaling slowly before continuing. "Until we had Jacob I had something of a love affair with unpredictability, but that... I won't lose someone else like that again, Clark. I could live until I'm ninety or I could die walking across the street tomorrow. Chloe's gone and the closest I'll ever be to her is a fellow journalist, and maybe an acquaintance if I get lucky. I can't let anything like that happen again. So if I'm monopolizing time with Devon, I'm sorry, but I'm going to be with her whenever and as much as I can because she's already over two months old and I would swear that I was only in labor and delivering her a week ago. Life is a blur, whether we like it or not, and there is a finite amount of time I get to spend with the people I love."

Moving so he was next to Lois, he wrapped an arm around her as she moved Devon to her shoulder and adjusted her shirt. "I love you, Lois."

"I love you, too, Smallville."

"That's good to hear, because I'm about to ask another question you probably don't want to answer. If you want to spend as much time as possible with the people you love, why are you working two jobs when you don't really need to?"

She opened her mouth like she wanted to say something before stopping, her mouth closing as she frowned. "I guess you make a good point. You're not suggesting that quit both of them, though, are you?"

"Of course not. I've already insulted your trust in me tonight. Why tempt fate and violence by suggesting you quit working and become a homemaker?"

She rolled her eyes before smiling at him, then looking at Devon again, her smile softening into something he'd always noted was saved for their children. "I love what I do so much, Clark, but I won't lie... if we could get by comfortably on one full time journalist income, I would seriously consider freelancing for Perry so I could spend more time with Jacob, Cass and Devon. But we can't get by on that nearly as well as we can on two journalist incomes, and it's like I said at the Kerth Awards: I'll never be satisfied the world is good enough for our children, and that pushes me to do more, to make sure that by the time they're our age and have families of their own they don't have to clean up the messes we could have."

"I understand. I don't know what it's like for you, but I'm in the same boat, wishing I could drop everything and spend every minute of the day with all three of them. It's annoying to be burdened with the need to make money so we can afford a place to live and food to eat."

"That _is_ annoying."

They sat in an easy silence for a moment, Clark enjoying the closeness to Lois. Looking over, he found that Devon had passed out against her. "You want me to go put her down for her nap?"

"Nah, I think she's fine where she is, and I don't want to run the risk of waking her up."

"So, not to rush you to a decision or anything, but do you have an idea of which job you would give up? I have a feeling, but I don't want to assume."

Lois was quiet a moment, staring out into space, and Clark was about to tell her that she didn't have to decide anything right this moment but she beat him to the punch. "I want to stay at _Weekly_, but I want that to be a part of something else, too."

"I'm thinking you misunderstood the concept of not doing as much."

"Let me explain, Smallville. I want to work at a newspaper. I love that type of work. The _Ledger_ is a good publication, but I want to go somewhere bigger where I can make the impact we used to make, which leads me to what I'm trying to get to. The day you came back from your imprisonment, I was offered a job, and with you back I'm tempted to accept it if you'll let me."

"Let you? I'm not entirely familiar with that concept. I've never _let you_ do anything because you're your own person."

"Well said, but this is something I won't do unless you approve of it, because my job offer is from the New York _Times_. Perry was with Martin Washington at the time, and Marty convinced him that he should be allowed to offer me a job since he would let me work for _Weekly_, too. And I want to continue that. But I would do that strictly as part of the team Lane and Kent. I'd talk to Perry and see if I could reduce my workload so I would only do articles with you. That way I could focus fully on my day job, put in some professional time with you and not be quite as bogged down."

"Ok, now I _know_ you don't understand the concept of doing less. How would working at the New York_ Times_ be doing less than working at the Smallville_ Ledger_?"

"I would be doing the same job there that I did at the_ Daily Planet_. I got that straight from Marty. Pretty soon I'd be doing the same here because I told Charlie that I'd start working five days a week when I returned from maternity leave. And yes, I understand that wanting to spend more time with the kids and upping my work week to five days from three is incongruous, but Charlie asked me to and I felt bad getting special treatment. One way or another I'm going to be working five days a week, but at least there I would feel like I'm having the impact I used to have. I want what I do to make the whole world a better place in every job I work, not just one of two."

"So since you're going to be working five days a week, you want to do so in New York rather than Smallville?"

She grimaced and sighed, gently leaning over to rest against his shoulder. He was surprised by the action, considering Devon was still sleeping against her. "I know that it's a lot to ask, and that it would be uprooting the kids again, but since the place I really want to work fired me for being too rational, sane, and in the end, correct, I want the next best thing. But I am happy here, Smallville, because we're here as a family. If you don't want to leave then we stay."

"Kind of a bombshell that you're dropping on me, Lo, wanting to move to New York for work and then making it my decision."

"Not so much making it your decision as giving you veto power. I think this would be good for us. We could get a fresh start, far away from all the people that rejected Superman and everything he stood for."

"You really want this, don't you?"

She shrugged. "I wouldn't have considered it if you hadn't come home, but then it was in the back of my mind for a few weeks because you did come home. It really started sounding like an appealing idea when Charlie asked if I'd be able to work full time after my maternity leave. It made me think about the_ Daily Planet_ and what I'd been able to do there. I can't accomplish what I want here in Smallville, and like I said, my first choice of papers is not an option. Obviously this wouldn't even be an option if I didn't think we would make it work."

He could tell how badly she wanted this. She had always had a tendency to repeat herself when trying to convince him of something she thought important that wasn't related to a story, considering she always just did what she thought was important and told him later in those cases, or was telling him when he was rescuing her. And there really wasn't much holding them in Smallville. He loved the town, but Lois wouldn't last long term in Smallville, not when the nearest major city was Metropolis, a place she could no longer stand to go. He would still be able to fly out and see his mom, and bring the kids along when they wanted to visit. It would be a huge adjustment, but... but this was what Lois wanted. "All right. Let's look into it and see what needs to happen."

"Seriously? I was expecting a long thought process by you on this topic."

He smiled. "Yeah. Lois Lane and Clark Kent on the east coast. Odd concept, isn't it?"

She leaned over and kissed him, cupping the side of his face with her hand as she leaned her face against his. "Thank you, Smallville. This is going to be good, I promise."


	21. Chapter 21

— Chapter 21

Checking her watch, Vicki looked back at her computer screen, covering a yawn with the back of her hand as she clicked around the _Daily Planet_ website, unable to stop herself from sighing as she read through the content they were now putting out. The dreck that she had forced herself to read through hadn't even made the paper good enough for it to qualify as a shell of its former self. She kept checking back from time to time in hopes that they would turn things around, but it was as if the paper was being run into the ground and nobody wanted to stop it. Despite the intentions to simply jump on the anti-Superman bandwagon, they were now the leader of the anti-vigilante fervor that gripped a majority of the city nearly a year later. Wanting to remind herself of why she had loved the _Daily Planet_ since she had been old enough to realize how good of a publication it was, she clicked into the archives and started going through old articles, mostly ones attributed to Lois Lane and Clark Kent. Clicking back to some of the oldest Lois Lane articles, she found one that shared a byline with Chloe Sullivan. _'That's her cousin, the one that died in the bombings,'_ Vicki thought, and clicked the article. The picture that came up with the article was old, but Vicki instantly recognized Lois. There wasn't a picture of her cousin, which she thought was odd since there was one for Lois. Digging a little deeper into the archives, this time focusing on the name Chloe Sullivan, the first entry was an obituary that she scanned before a dozen entries or so that were old articles, but there was no picture attached, which was even more odd in Vicki's mind. Going back to the list of articles, she skimmed titles before coming to something that wasn't written by Chloe, but was an article whose title proclaimed that she had been vindicated in reference to a claim made by Lex Luthor that a story had been made up. That must've been why all her articles were so old. Justice being served and Luthor going to jail must not have been enough to draw her back into journalism before her death in the bombings. It wasn't the first time she'd seen somebody become fed up with journalism because of the difficulties sometimes involved, and she was sure it wouldn't be the last.

Moving on, she decided to read some of the articles that she'd written. They were good. Very good. Vicki could see that Lois's boast about her cousin being good wasn't just family pride. Must be something in their genes for two cousins to have that much journalistic talent between them. Hearing footsteps, she peeked over the top of her computer and found Jeff coming towards her. "Hey," she said, "another ten minutes and I might have had to go home without you."

He stopped by her desk and she shut down her computer, pulling her purse out and standing up. "I thought you might have all ready gone home and curled up with that book you've been reading since most people that, like us, are off the next five days for the fourth of July took off early. I guess it was a good move to stop and make sure."

"I was tempted to go home but we have some business to attend to tonight, so I figured I'd wait. Wouldn't do me any good to be there without you." They started towards the elevator, slowly making their way through the news room. Vicki glanced up at him, then shook her head, smiling a little bit. His silence spoke volumes. "For as much time as we thought and talked about trying to have a baby, I'm surprised you didn't keep better track of what day it is, because I know I told you that I'll start ovulating tomorrow, which means..." She left it at that, and rolled her eyes a little as he caught on.

"We're starting tonight? I can't believe I forgot that. I was only counting down the days." He stopped, shaking his head. "I blame the day I had. I got so caught up in the utter monotony that the date and meaning of it must have leaked out of my ear, along with the rest of my brain."

"Sounds rough."

"The day reached a level of dull I did not know existed," he said as they stepped into the elevator, pushing the lobby button. "But that isn't important. Tonight is what's important. Obviously we need to keep expectations at a real level, in that this could take some time to happen."

"But it's easy to get caught up in the fact that this could be a life changing night," Vicki said quietly. "It's easy to get caught up in the fact that we're taking a giant step towards a new life..."

"...In every sense of the phrase," Jeff continued. "That said, we're going to be the best damn parents this side of Gotham."

"You put it that way because Beth lives on the other side of the city, didn't you?"

"What can I say? I'm a good brother and a nice guy."

"I've noticed that. You're lucky those are attractive traits in a man." Leaving the elevator and then the building, they walked into the parking garage and started the drive home. Leaning her seat back a little bit, she settled in comfortably for the drive home, but didn't want to spend it all in quiet contemplation about what was going to happen when they got home. As she tried to distract herself, she decided to pose a question to Jeff. "When was the last time you had unprotected sex before we got together?"

He shot her a glance before looking back to the road. "Never had before."

"Really? You've never had a situation where your lust got the best of you and just threw caution to the wind?"

"You remember how my sister told you I was a virgin until the age of twenty-one? Have to remember to thank her for sharing that bit of information." She nodded and he continued. "Well, most of that was shyness. It took me awhile to break out of my shell, up until I kind of lucked into getting my first girlfriend. I was not always the confident man you know and love."

"How do you luck into getting a girlfriend?"

"She asks you out and you're so tongue tied that she takes your shocked silence as a yes. Anyway, because I was twenty-one and sexless I had thought about sex _a lot_. And by a lot, I mean take how much the normal guy thinks about it and up that by a factor of a very large number. I figured that at some point I would conquer my shyness at least enough to ask a girl out and it would happen, so I wanted to be prepared. Thus, when I was twenty, I started carrying two condoms in my wallet, and continue that practice to this day."

"How very responsible of you, boy scout. But why didn't you break one of those things out the first time we had sex?"

He shrugged, smiling at her for a second before turning back to look at the road. "I thought about it for about half a second, but then you started rubbing things together and all thoughts flew out of my mind. I think things worked out for the best, despite not being very smart our first time."

"That night did seem to send us into an intertwined destiny." Vicki paused and frowned, a little disgusted at herself. "I can't believe I just said that."

"I tricked the sweet side you hide so well into coming out and saying something like 'intertwined destiny,' which I like, by the way. Makes it seem like no matter what, we would have ended up together."

"Do you believe that?"

"Before we got together? No. Since then it isn't a yes, but the way everything about our relationship clicks, the way our personalities mesh and how we just seem to _get _each other... well, it's just a lot less of a no than it used to be. I don't know that it was destiny or fate, but I feel like there's a reason for us. It's like the Gods knew how awesome we are and decided, much like we did, that future generations shouldn't be deprived of our genes."

Vicki was about to respond as they exited the highway towards their neighborhood, but was distracted by a glow on the horizon against the night sky in the direction they were headed. "Do you see that?" she asked, pointing towards the glow.

"Yeah. What is it?"

"Not sure, but it's near the house."

"Very near the house," Jeff mumbled. The rest of the short drive was spent in silence, and Vicki covered her mouth has they pulled up as far as they could go. "Son of a bitch," she heard Jeff bite out as he jumped out of the car. She followed, jogging after him as best she could in heels, and didn't catch up until Jeff came to a stop next to the fire trucks in front of the house. Their house, ablaze in front of them, lit up the night around them more so than any of the flashing lights of the trucks.

Leaving Jeff's side, she went back to the car and dug her press pass out of her purse as she spotted one of the fireman observing more than helping. Walking up to him, she flashed the pass at him. "Vicki Vale from the _Gazette_. Any comments on the fire?"

"Officially, there's no known cause yet and we're trying to contain it to the one house. The houses in this neighborhood are all at least one hundred years old so wiring isn't out of the realm of possibility, but it's far too early to have an actual cause, especially since nobody was home."

Vicki sensed there was something more, and with her honed reporter instincts used her best weapon for getting more information out of somebody not wanting to offer it. "But..."

He looked at her for a second, crossing his arms over his chest. "Off the record?" She nodded and he continued. "The speed with which the fire consumed the house concerns me. When the call came in the caller said that they'd heard breaking glass and that there was a little smoke coming out of a couple windows. We arrived three minutes after the call, and normally that means we can contain it. By the time we arrived the whole house was overtaken and we were trying to keep it from jumping to neighboring houses."

"So basically this screams of an accelerant being used?" He shrugged, obviously not wanting to confirm anything, and Vicki forced a small smile. "Thanks." Shoving her pass into in her pocket, she walked back to the car and pulled her phone out of her purse, scrolling down until she found the number she wanted and set it to dial before putting it to her ear and hearing the voice that she had hoped to hear.

"Beth, it's Vicki."

"Hey! What's going on? I didn't expect to hear from you guys until we see you on the fourth."

"Unfortunately it's nothing good, and you may be hearing from us a lot the for a little while. We just got back to the house and found it on fire, nearly burned to the ground. I don't know what Jeff's going to want to do, but I thought I'd give you the heads up."

"Oh my God! Do they know what happened?"

Accelerant. That screamed of people not thrilled with her articles coming after her again. No use in putting that out there when she didn't know it to be true, though. "I talked to one of the fire fighters, but no official word yet, no."

"Whenever you can, tell Jeff that you two are staying with us tonight, no arguments. You guys need family now, not some random nearby hotel."

"Thank you, Beth. Fair warning: we might be here late."

"Doesn't matter. You guys be safe, and I'll see you when you get here."

Hanging up, she walked back to Jeff, who didn't appear to have moved much in the five minutes she'd been gone. She slid her hand into his as she stood by to his side, watching the fire get doused. "I'm so sorry, Jeff. All your stuff..."

He sighed before turning to her. "My stuff was just stuff. Neither of us was hurt, which is what's important here. I didn't have anything in there that can't be replaced."

She nodded. "I gave Beth a quick call to let her know what happened. She said that we're staying with them tonight, no arguments, no matter how late we're here. I also talked to one of the fire fighters, and heard things that I didn't like hearing."

"Such as?"

"He didn't like how fast the fire moved, and at least that one was thinking some form of accelerant was used. Given that information, unless we have some really bad luck, I'm aware of numerous people in the Gotham crime world that like to use arson as a message to back off. I'd need to do more research and hear what the arson investigator reports, but I'm not liking where this could be leading. If this happened because I'm living here, I can't apologize enough, Jeff."

Jeff looked up at the house again as the house collapsed in on itself, the timber no longer strong enough to hold. "Don't be sorry for others taking action because you're trying to bring them to justice." Vicki sighed heavily, barely able to make herself watch the disaster in motion that had been their house. "Know what?" Jeff asked, and she looked up at him. "We'll figure out what really happened later because there's nothing we can do about it now. Let's see what the fire fighters say could happen tonight and go from there."

* * *

><p>Walking into Beth's house, Vicki got wrapped into a hug with Beth and Jeff before she knew what was happening. She was soon let go, and they were both greeted by a sad smile from Chuck. "I'd like to ask how you two are holding up, but I think that would be a stupid question."<p>

"We're as well as could be expected in the situation" Jeff said. "You guys really didn't need to stay up, especially this late. I could have just used the spare key."

"I wanted to see you guys with my own eyes, make sure you didn't get hurt in some random little burst of flame or something. Since you both appear to be in one piece, my worry can be put aside for now and we'll let you get some sleep. The basement is all set up for you, so just pick where you want to sleep and don't even bother thinking about getting up any sooner than you have to."

Vicki smiled and bid the other couple goodnight as Jeff kissed Beth on the cheek while doing the same. Walking down the stairs, Jeff led her to a bedroom where a comfortable looking bed awaited them, and they both sat down on the edge. "Weird night," Vicki said through a sigh.

"I still want to try."

"What?"

He looked at her, determination etched across his face. "I don't care what happened to the house, at least not right now, and I know that I'm tired and not thinking as clearly as I want to be, but there is one thing I know: I am not going to let what happened to the house deprive me of a chance to start a family with you. Period."

"I think that's what we're trying to avoid."

"Huh?"

She waved a hand and shook her head, dismissing what she'd just said. "Sorry, bad attempt at a dumb joke." Smiling, she kissed him gently. "I love you. Let's see if we can't turn a huge negative into a huge positive."

* * *

><p>Vicki surveyed the scene in front of her, still not sure what to make of the complete destruction of the house. There was almost nothing left but charred bits and pieces. Looking back, she watched Jeff, Beth and Sam walk up to where she was, all of them stopping next to her. "It's just... <em>gone<em>," she heard Beth say quietly, knowing that it wasn't a statement directed at anybody so much as astonishment being let loose.

"Is there anything specific you want us to look for, Vicki?" Sam asked, and Vicki shook her head.

"One of the upsides of having moved frequently is that I didn't have much in the way of keepsakes. What I do have is work related and therefore at the office."

"Jeff?"

"Not really, no. Pictures and that sort of thing would have been kindling and I keep all our important papers in my safe at work." Ripping open a box he'd been carrying, he handed a garbage sack to Beth and Sam, then finally to her. "On the off chance we actually find anything worth saving," he said, tossing the box aside and stuffing the bag into his back pocket.

Vicki smiled at him, doing her best not to look as forlorn as she felt. "We don't have to do this, Jeff. There are people that make a living going through the remnants of burned down houses."

"I know," he said, smiling sadly at her. "But I feel like I owe it to the house to do this. This was the first house I bought and paid for. This is the place where I realized I was falling in love with you, and the first place I told you I love you. I feel like I owe the house my happiness, and at least want to do some of the cleanup before most of it is sent to the dump."

"Are you going to rebuild here?" Beth asked, and Vicki saw him shrug before looking back at the wreckage.

"It's a possibility, but I doubt it."

Holding the bag and being where they were, the enormity of the situation seemed to finally hit her. It was as if the shock had worn off all at once and the possibilities of what could have been seemed to hit her hardest. She wiped a tear out of the corner of her eye, Jeff asking her if she was okay making her want to explain her feelings. "I didn't realize until just now what the house symbolized for me. It was the end of me moving wherever the wind took me and the beginning of a whole new life. It just never occurred to me..." she trailed off, having nothing else to say, nothing with which to finish her sentence. "We should get started if we're going to get much done. Maybe we'll get lucky and actually find something."

* * *

><p>With her elbows on her desk, Vicki rested her forehead against her thumbs, staring down at a small silver cross that was laying on her desk. She had been staring at it for the better part of two days, ever since she had found it in the cleanup of the house remnants. It had been two of her least productive days as a human being, let alone a journalist. She assumed everybody had chocked it up to her being in a state of shock over her house burning down. Ryan had sent her home the first day, not even believing that she had come in, even after the long weekend. Picking up the cross, she turned it over, frowning at the capital I on the back like it had done something to personally offend her. It was just an object, a bit of engraved metal, but it had been left for her in the rubble of where she had lived. Closing her eyes, she gently tapped it against her forehead a couple times before letting it rest there, the coolness of the metal in distinct contrast to the heat of her skin. Standing up, she walked to Ryan's office and knocked once before going inside and placing the cross on the desk.<p>

He glanced up at her before she motioned for him to flip it over. When he did he sat back in his chair. "This what I think it is?" he asked, inspecting the cross closely.

"I found it when we were cleaning up the ashes on Tuesday."

"People in crime organizations really don't seem to like you. While I like that in you, I dislike that you've been attacked at home twice since starting here. It's for the right reasons, but I'd rather not have my best journalist killed in the line of duty."

"I don't like that any more than you do, Ryan, and since it appears that Intergang has left Metropolis and come to Gotham, or at least into my life in Gotham, I like it even less. Pretty much the last thing I needed was _another_ crime organization that doesn't like me, and the last thing Gotham needs is Intergang coming to town, even a weakened version."

He tossed the cross back to her, saying, "I'm surprised that they can come after you considering the damage Lois Lane did to them. If they were going to regrow their operation you'd think they'd do so in Metropolis, the way that city is taking a nosedive." Pausing as he pulled at his tie for a second, his gaze came back up to meet hers. "I know the answer, but I'd ask any of my writers if they wanted to continue the path they're on after a warning like this."

Looking down and at the cross, she closed her hand around it as she looked back up at Ryan. "This isn't about me anymore," she said quietly. "My responsibility is to my family, this city and anybody whose life was ever impacted by Intergang coming after me. Not a chance I back down."

"This isn't a contest of wills, Vicki."

"They burned down my house, Ryan! They want to warn me? Fine, I've been warned. Now it's my turn, and I don't do warnings."

"That's all very well and good, but how much do you know about Intergang? You've been dealing mostly with Tobias Whale until now and around here there was plenty of information about the habits and tendencies of his organization. Now you're tackling a different beast and I want you armed with every bit of information available to you. Do you know people that might have the kind of information, or are you going to have to go to the friend of a friend of one of your insiders?"

Vicki couldn't help but frown at that. While she'd written for numerous papers, none of them had ever really been near Metropolis, and her lone excursion there had been because of the bombings when she was newly hired at the _Gazette._ It took her a moment of thinking about the city and anybody that came to mind before her inner light bulb went off and she felt really dumb that it took her that long to get there. "I have someone in mind," she said, feeling a little better about going into the fight with Intergang armed with the information she would need.


	22. Chapter 22

— Chapter 22

Setting her bag down in an adjacent chair, Vicki smiled at the waiter as she took her seat. Looking around for a second, she noted that it was a nicer looking restaurant than she had expected. Turning her head back to the waiter, she said, "I'm meeting somebody here, so I'll wait to order until she gets here."

The waiter nodded and put a second menu down on the table across from her. "Would you like anything to drink while you wait, ma'am?"

"Just water for now, please." Opening her menu, she started perusing slowly, pausing to thank the waiter when he brought her water before going back to trying to decide what to eat. After only grabbing a bagel for breakfast as she left Beth's house, having been running late after Jeff had lawyer talked his way into morning sex, she definitely wouldn't have minded taking on what the menu called the 'Mountain of Pasta'. Too bad that might be unseemly at a business lunch, not to mention completely clash with the ambiance of the place. She had a difficult time even imagining what that would be, and was doubly surprised to find something with a name like that on the menu. Apparently even restaurants seemed to have quirks these days. Whatever it took to make sure they stayed in business, she mused. As Vicki took a sip of water, she checked her watch and remembered that she had to take the vitamins that her doctor had prescribed when she had inquired about pregnancy. She had always been bad about regularly taking vitamins of any sort, being the type to easily get caught up in something and lose track of time, space and just about anything else that wasn't related to what she was doing. Jeff had taken to calling it her focus time because he had quickly realized that she was going to stay focused on what she was doing and only pay minimal attention to anything else, including him.

"Vicki?"

Her head snapping up, it occurred to her that she had gotten lost in her thoughts while thinking about being lost to the world because of being focused on something. She smiled apologetically, saying, "Sorry, Lois. I got lost in my thoughts and never heard or saw you coming."

As the other woman sat down, she ordered a glass of water for herself then smiled as well. "Lost in thought while waiting for food? That may very well be my modus operandi, or at least it was once upon a time ago."

"Nice to know I'm in good company. What do you recommend as being good here?"

"Everything I've ever had here was really good, so order whatever you like and I doubt you'll be disappointed. I don't know how hungry you are, but personally I'm starving and I love the Mountain of Pasta. It's not as much food as it sounds like and twice as tasty as you'd imagine. "

"It's like you read my mind, so I think we're ready to order."

"You're a woman after my own heart." She watched her wave the waiter over, and handed her menu to him as Lois said, "Two pasta mountains, please, and two glasses of the house red to go with them." After jotting down the order, he took their menus and walked away, leaving them alone. "It was a nice surprise to hear from you the other day."

"We could have done all of this over the phone, but since you were going to be here anyway, it's always nice to get in face time with somebody I'm asking a favor from, especially if it's one of the most well known journalists in the world."

"I'm already here, so while I always enjoy praise coming my way, there's no need. I'm happy to help a fellow journalist."

"I'm glad you feel that way," Vicki said, reaching into her bag and pulling out the cross that had been the catalyst for this meeting. She held it out and Lois took it, looking confused as she inspected it until she turned it over and saw the engraving. "My house burned down a week ago Tuesday, and I was troubled by it for two reasons other than losing my house. The first was that when I talked to one of the firemen at the scene, in the off the record portion of our talk he was all but saying that an accelerant had been used in the fire, based on what had first been reported to them in the emergency call and what they had found when they'd arrived on scene. The second thing was finding that cross in the ashes and soot that was leftover. From the total destruction and utter lack of anything left after the fire, I'm almost sure that this was put there afterwards, to make sure the message got sent. That brings us to why I called you. I'm pissed off. _Very_ pissed off. What I wanted to ask you over the phone before you said we could meet here was if I could borrow your notes and research on Intergang, because I want to hit back. Hard. I know that most of your information was probably in reference to your own investigation of arms dealing and has to do with their dealings in Metropolis, but I'll gladly take anything you don't mind parting with. Even if it doesn't do anything but give me insight into the organization, it will be helpful."

After a second of chewing on her lip, something Vicki thought looked like concern flashed across her counterpart's face before it was gone again. It was nice to know that Lois Lane might be concerned for her. "Intergang is in Gotham, is it? Figures. Perfect place for organized crime to go when it's trying to rebuild. There's a nearly endless supply of flunkies and nut jobs to choose from." Lois nodded, saying "I think something can be arranged. I'll have to check with some people to see if they want their names with somebody else, but that shouldn't take too long since I'll vouch for you. I also have a few people that I can put you in touch with so that you can get some firsthand information, maybe see if they know anything specific about what you're looking into. Just not sure how much they'll know about what is happening in Gotham since they're Metropolis based informants."

"Wow, that would be amazing. I was just hoping to get some notes. Is there anything I can do to try and reciprocate?" Lois shrugged, but Vicki wanted there to be some way she could repay her, so she decided to push a little bit. "Are you sure? There has to be something that I can do to even things out a little bit. It seems like you're going above and beyond for somebody you've spoken to only a few times."

"There really isn't much," Lois said. She looked away a moment before turning back, and then suddenly sighed. "I guess, considering you're offering to try and even things out when it's not really necessary, since I'm going to be spending a lot more time in the northeast pretty soon, I could use a friend in the area. Basically somebody to talk to that isn't a part of my work life or my husband. I love him, but we all need a friend that we aren't married to."

"I got lucky," Vicki said, smiling, "because I happened to marry a man with a large group of friends that all still live within about sixty miles of Gotham. I've met all of them, though I can't say I've had a chance to really get to know all of them, and I still have to meet a lot of their children. There's actually a big party in a couple weeks where everybody is getting together at my sister-in-law's house. Technically they're all his friends and family, but the way they've treated me, like I've always been a part of the group, at times almost has me thinking of them being as much my friends as they are Jeff's."

"I grew up an army brat, emphasis on brat, and I've always ended up being something of a loner. Lots of schools in a few years, all that jazz. I was close to my cousin, and grew close to my sister over the past five years or so, but Clark is an only child raised on a farm in a town called Smallville, and the three friends he had in high school were Chloe, Kansas State Rep. Pete Ross and his wife Lana. Considering we barely have a chance to see the latter two, and my sister and her family almost as little, I'm short on other adults in my life. Thus, that's why when I said I could use a friend just a moment ago, it was all awkward and uncomfortable."

"Didn't even notice. I was just happy that there was something I could help with." She had noticed, but why alienate a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist looking for a friend? "So, yeah, consider me your friend in Gotham. I gave you my number when we had lunch after the Kerth Awards, right?"

Lois nodded, but didn't say anything as their food got to the table. They both had a few bites before the conversation picked up again, with Lois getting the ball rolling. "Let me ask before I get carried away: do you mind if I inquire into your life, or would it be too quick?"

Swallowing, Vicki shrugged. "Doesn't bother me. We talked a little bit about our lives outside of journalism when we had lunch, so it's not that big of a deal."

"All right. If I recall, you mentioned that you and your husband were thinking about starting a family. Any decision?"

"We're going for it, actually."

Lois smiled around a bite of food, taking a second before holding up her wine glass and saying, "Congratulations. You'll love motherhood during every moment you aren't utterly exhausted, which will be about five minutes every third Sunday afternoon."

Vicki picked up her wine glass and clinked it against Lois's before sipping from it. "It's really as tiring as people say, I take it?"

"The first kid is exhausting because it's a total adjustment to a new lifestyle, and unless you spend the months leading up to and through your pregnancy getting three hours of sleep a night, you're nowhere near as ready as you think you are. The second is adding baby exhaustion on top of young child exhaustion and the third is where you decide that you don't need to sleep for the next decade. But then there are the times..." Lois left it hanging there for a moment, and Vicki watched her sigh and smile slightly. "It's worth it, Vicki. I know I'm making it sound like years of being tired and not getting enough sleep, and that's exactly what it is, but it really is worth it. I don't know where I would be if I didn't have Jacob, Cassidy and Devon. Anyway, um, almost got lost in a long ramble there. Good for you, deciding to have children."

"Do you mind if I ask you something personal, Lois?"

"Only seems fair, considering the deeply personal question I just asked."

"Why did you decide to have children? And yes, I know that it's a strange question to ask a person, but throughout the time Jeff and I took to figure out if we wanted children I kept finding myself saying yes, I want children, and more specifically I wanted Jeff's children, and I can't for the life of me figure out why." Pausing to take a sip of her wine, Vicki put her glass back down and looked back to Lois, who was moving her food around on her plate with her fork as she watched her. "Never in my life did I desire children until I got married, and that happened after I'd never desired getting married! It's like I met Jeff and my whole perspective on life was flipped on its head. I married a man I'd been with for about six months and had known for about eight."

"Well, why did you choose to marry him?"

"It wasn't because I felt I needed it to complete my life or anything, but because it felt right. When he asked me to marry him, there was this second before I answered where I saw myself living with him thirty years later, still happy as I was at that moment, and I said yes because that thought, and all the others I had about him, made me happy."

Lois nodded as she drained the last of her wine, then smiled. "Seems like a good reason to me. The question is, when you were thinking about your future with Jeff while deliberating becoming a mother, did you have that same picture of you two thirty years later, but this time with children and grandchildren in the house?"

"I did, yeah," Vicki said quietly. "Can it really be as simple as it feels right?" The conversation reminded her of her vitamins, which she had forgotten the last time she remembered she needed to take them, and she reached into her purse, smiling apologetically. "Sorry, forgot that I need to take my prenatal vitamins, and I guess I need every bit of what's in these things since I'm on the old side of trying to become a mom for the first time." Popping them in her mouth, she washed them down with some water. "You never answered the question, you know."

"Yeah, I know. I got caught up in being the helper for once rather than the one being helped through a decision like this. I was always the one getting talked through things happening in my personal life, mostly by Chloe. Why I wanted children..." She exhaled loudly, shaking her head. "It wasn't one thing, but more a few things that snuck up on me. Clark was adopted, and while he couldn't love his birth parents any more than he does Jonathan and Martha Kent, he always kind of longed for that blood connection. Kids were low on my priority list before we got married, but knowing that he wanted a family, I thought about it a lot, and would always like the idea more and more. Of course, considering Clark and I, it was never going to be easy, at least not in theory. When we decided to go for it, we got tested to make sure everything was in working order for us. Turned out that after the tests, we were told that we'd be lucky to even conceive, and twice as lucky if I could carry the baby anywhere close to term. We hadn't even started and we felt defeated, like it would never happen. We said we'd try for awhile, and if it didn't happen we'd look into adoption. But four months later we made Jacob, then Cassidy came along, and then finally Devon." She leaned forward, resting against the table. "I'm not a believer in fate, but if anything were to lead me to believe in it, those three existing would be what did it. Now, your turn to answer. Or are you going to stick with 'because it feels right,' which is actually a pretty good answer as far as I'm concerned."

Vicki finished off a bite of pasta, wiping her mouth off with her napkin while she tried to figure out what her answer was. "It's everything. It's Jeff, because I know that from the moment we started thinking about it, maybe even earlier in our relationship, he came to the conclusion he wanted children, but never pressured me, and had I said I didn't want children he would have supported that, which oddly makes me want children with him a little bit more. It's talking to all my new friends, because it was no secret that we were thinking about it and is no secret that we're now trying, and each and every one of them is supportive, which is a lot of supportive people. It's the fact that my sister-in-law, Beth, who is quickly becoming somebody I'm very close to, has two daughters that I'm getting to know, and are so sweet that I have thoughts like 'I hope my children are like that,' and that was before I had even made up my mind! It's just such a collection of factors, but really, what it all comes back to is that I found a man I love, and I'm so happy with him that I think I can't possibly be happier until I talk to people with children and they talk about how their children completed their happiness, despite all the hard work. So maybe when I really dig deep, I'm just selfish, but now that I've stumbled into this whole world that I never really thought about, I want all the happiness that could possibly be available to me, including the happiness a baby brings. I know it comes with a changed body in the short term and a lifetime of changed priorities, but I don't care. I want it."

Vicki looked back at Lois, realizing she'd been talking off into space more so than to her lunch companion, and found her staring, slightly wide eyed. "For somebody that was a little wishy washy on why she wanted children ten minutes ago you certainly seem to have figured things out."

"Yeah, I guess I did. Wish I had been aware of it before having my epiphany in public, verbally and in front of somebody I'm don't know that well. Anyway, on a less serious note and to totally move the topic away from me, it is very odd to encounter person after person that is absolutely gleeful that Jeff is married and trying to become a parent. Apparently him being single and childless was a huge worry among numerous people in the group. I mean, they're all good people, and I like everybody that I'm having the opportunity to get to know, but I think when you have a large group of friends and all but one conform to social norms, i.e. married by or around the age of thirty with 2.4 children, the majority bemoan the fact that one friend doesn't have the same things they do. Therefore he must feel totally left out or left behind because he's missing what they consider two of the basic reasons for living: companionship and progeny."

Lois smiled at her, shrugging. "Don't be too hard on those people because as it just so happens, I used to be one of them. Chloe was the one that made me aware of that, actually, because I did it to her. She said that when I got married I started bugging her about getting married. Then when I had my son and she was engaged, I started nudging her towards children. It's a slippery slope, and until she pointed it out to me I had no idea how bad about it I was. So while I don't condone their or my actions, the awareness of those actions may also be minimal."

"I will give them credit for the fact that they could have been a lot worse, especially since they never really got into it with him and kept it as something that would come up occasionally, like wondering if he was lonely, living in his house alone like he had for nine years."

"How are you and Jeff dealing with your house burning down?"

"As best we can, I guess." Vicki cleared her throat and took a drink of water before continuing. "We're still waiting on the official report from the arson investigator, but we have a claim into the insurance company and I think even they have to admit that the house burned down and they owe us money. Once we get that sorted out we'll have to decide if we want to rebuild, buy a house somewhere else or build a new house somewhere else. For now we live in my sister-in-law's basement." Lois's eyebrows went up, and Vicki smiled. "Strange as it seems, it's actually pretty nice. It's insulated, comfortable and best of all, sound proof, meaning minimal worries about young ears hearing things they shouldn't unless they sneak down and surprise us, which has happened a couple times."

"Welcome to the beginning of a life of quieter sex than you ever thought you were capable of having."

"Just the life I was looking to begin."

Lois chuckled a little bit, sitting back in her chair as she did so. "I remember when my house burned down, on the day of the bombings. It's a tough thing to get over."

"Oh, yeah! I remember reading about that in the_ Star_ when I was checking the Metropolis papers about what was going on. I was in the city covering the bombings as my first _Gazette_ assignment and was surprised that it even got into the papers."

"Yeah, I wasn't all that happy that my house burning down was considered news, but the circumstances, with people shooting at me..." Lois frowned and looked down, shaking her head.

"If you don't want to talk about it that's fine," Vicki said, sitting back in her chair and relaxing a bit, "but what exactly happened that day? I've always kind of wondered since what was reported was kept pretty vague beyond people burning your house down and trying to kill you."

"Yeah, that was a hell of a time." Lois suddenly held up her wine glass, and the waiter soon brought over the bottle, refilling her glass before Lois motioned to him to leave it. "You want some more?" she asked.

"No, thanks. Jeff and I started trying to conceive last week and I may actually be pregnant at the moment so I'm trying not to saturate myself in alcohol, tempting as it is."

"Understandable, considering I'm going to have to pump and dump. So, what happened when my house was burned down?" Shaking her head, she downed half her glass of wine. "What happened was my life was turned upside down. In one day my cousin, who was my closest friend, was killed. I lost my husband for almost a year. I lost my house and all my possessions. I nearly lost my life in an attack by what I can only assume were professional mercenaries. Had I not been raised the way I was, like I had enlisted in my father's personal army, I probably wouldn't be here now."

"Seriously?" Vicki asked, trying not to look shocked. "Mercenaries?"

"Seriously," Lois responded, nodding. "The were fully stocked with automatic weapons and well trained. I'm betting they were all former military."

Lois went on to describe the ordeal of that day, how she had been on the run, surviving by the skin of her teeth because of the martial arts training she had done with her cousin, and how she stolen a car and almost been run off the road. If Vicki hadn't known any better she never would have imagined that her job was in investigative journalism because she sounded like she should be a war correspondent with her skill set. When the tale finally ended, with Lois filling in some occasional details between that day and their current meal together, Vicki couldn't help but shake her head. "I thought I was hardcore, fighting off a couple thugs and having my house burn down in the same year. Seems somebody wanted to send you a stronger message than has been sent to me."

"Just means you're doing your job correctly. It's unfortunate that those are the ways that people choose to send messages, rather than sending actual messages, but what are you going to do, right? They're not criminals because they like to send strongly worded letters to the editor."

"Very, very true," Vicki muttered, taking a sip of her water. "I generally get a kick out of letters sent to the _Gazette_ because of something I wrote, but not so much being attacked. That I could live without." Frowning, Vicki took a second to rub at the bridge of her nose. "So, to completely change the subject, I never did ask why you are in New York. Did Perry White ask you to relocate to somewhere bigger than Smallville, Kansas? That's a ridiculous name for a town, by the way."

"No kidding. When Chloe told me she was moving there when we were younger I thought she had made the name up. And for a town of its size it seems to attract a lot of crazy. Two meteor showers, generations of meta humans... but, then again, I met Clark in Smallville and it's as close as I'll ever come to having an actual home town, so I guess it's not all bad. Anyway, no, Perry didn't ask me to relocate. I got an offer from Marty Washington at the New York_ Times_ about a month before we met, and after talking it over with Clark I decided to take it. We're hammering out contract details because I'll still be doing occasional pieces for _Weekly_ with Clark, so we have to get in writing who has rights over what, when and where, blah blah blah. The minutiae of contracts makes me go cross-eyed, but Clark's good with those sorts of details and will keep track of who, what, where, when and why. Plus, we're taking the time to house hunt."

"Where are you guys looking?"

"Mostly up in Connecticut. Greenwich, Stamford, and the like." Lois shrugged, smiling. "I thought we could get a place in the city, but Clark wants the kids to have a real yard and neighborhood, and even I have to admit the places up there are nice. With the high speed rail the commute's less than half an hour each way, which is basically the same as it was when going from the suburbs into Metropolis, and with the insurance money we got after our house burned down, we'll be able to put up a sizable amount up front, especially after some of the investment help I got from Oliver."

"Oliver?" Vicki asked, not knowing who Lois was referring to, despite the fact that she had said the name so casually that Vicki thought she had expected her to know who she was talking about.

"Oliver Queen," Lois said, blinking a few times and shaking her head before regaining her composure. That was weird. "Sorry, I got lost in the conversation and thought... well, doesn't matter what I thought and I should have been clearer. He and I dated for a little while before I realized Clark Kent was more than a future farmer and we're still friends. I told him I wanted to invest a little of what I had gotten from the insurance company as a college fund for my kids. Low risk, low yield kind of stuff that will have time to mature and that I won't have to touch until my oldest is going off to college. He took that money, worked some financial wizardry and turned it into a college fund for ten children all going to Ivy League schools. Long story less long, once we find a house we love we're going to be able to put a lot of money down and have small payments."

"The billionaire you dated sounds a lot more useful than the one I dated," Vicki mused, smiling. "Bruce is too busy drinking eighty year old scotch and boinking soicialites with big boobs, tiny waists and tinier brains. I wouldn't doubt that I'm the only real looking woman he has dated in the last decade, let alone the only one over thirty. And with the number of women he goes through, it's astounding that he doesn't have, like, twelve children by twelve different women."

"Yeah, that sounds like Bruce." Lois pulled her phone out of her purse and glanced at it before grimacing and stuffing it away again. "Time got away from me. Can you believe we've been talking for almost an hour? I need to get back to the hotel and help Clark corral the little devils for nap time."

Checking her own phone and finding what the time was, Vicki was shocked to see that Lois was correct in how much time had passed. She hadn't had a conversation like that with somebody since... well, ever. She had never been one to lose track of time. "Jesus, how did that happen?"

"Nobody knows, but I appreciate you driving up here to join me for lunch. How long is the drive up from Gotham?"

"About two and a half hours, three if traffic sucks. Not that bad, really," Vicki said, gathering up her things as she dropped some money onto the table.

"Two and half hours? Yeah, could be worse, but for going that far out of the way I'm paying for lunch. Use your money to pay for gas." Picking up the cash Vicki had dropped, Lois handed it back to her before dropping a fifty on the table. Before Vicki could get a word in edgewise, Lois had already gathered her things and was moving Vicki away from the table. "As for the people to talk to for your investigation, I'll make some calls and they'll get in touch with you. Some of them are 'Don't call me, I'll call you' kind of people, so I'll work out the details and they'll be in touch. I'll email all the files I have to you in the next couple days, too. Personal email address, not your work one. No offense to your bosses, but after the fiasco at the_ Daily Planet_ I'm hesitant to trust big wigs."

"For the information you're providing me, offend them all you want." Walking out of the restaurant, Vicki stopped and pointed back over her shoulder. "My car's back that way. You headed to Midtown?"

"Yeah, it's about a ten minute walk." Lois paused and smiled, pulling Vicki into a quick hug before releasing her. "Sorry, but my husband and children turned me into a hugger. It's an annoying habit I can't seem to break. If we don't get a chance to talk for a while, good luck with the whole pregnancy thing. All the discomfort and leakage is totally worth it when your baby finally makes its entrance."

"Leakage?" Vicki asked, not entirely sure she wanted to know.

"You'll see."

"Goody. And hey, if you ever need an escape from your family for a little while, we can always meet somewhere halfway between Gotham and New York for a lunch like this."

Lois smiled at her, nodding as she turned and started walking. "Sounds like a plan." She stopped suddenly, spinning on her heel and fishing a notepad out of her purse. She wrote something down and tore the piece of paper out, holding it out for Vicki to take. "You have a husband now, and in-laws. Intergang hits hard, especially after they've fired a warning shot like they did. Call that number, tell them that I gave it to you and what you're doing. They'll watch your back."

Opening the piece of paper to see that it was just a phone number, with no name or any other information accompanying it. "Won't security guards make me especially conspicuous at a time when I want to stay below the radar?"

"Trust me, Vicki, these guys are very good. You'll never even know they're there."

"That sounds expensive. How much do they cost?"

Lois shrugged. "It's free."

"Free?" Vicki didn't bother to hide her shock. "Who in the world provides free protection..." Vicki allowed her voice to trail off as realization struck her. She stepped closer to Lois. "Is this... is this a phone number for the _Justice League_?" she asked quietly, holding up the piece of paper in her hand.

"Call them. Tell them Lois Lane gave you the number. Do your work." Vicki hoped that was confirmation of her inquiry through a lack of an actual denial. Lois held up a finger, shaking it at her a couple times. "And be safe. I hate making friends only to have them go and die on me. That's a giant pain in the ass I don't need."


	23. Chapter 23

— Chapter 23

Waiting as a few people walked out of the building as Clark held the door open, Lois entered into the New York _Times_ building, Clark right behind her. It wasn't a long walk to the elevators, which they took up to the intended floor in silence with a few other people, Clark smiling at her once and she returning it. Exiting the elevator as Clark held the door for her, Lois walked through the bullpen straight to Marty's office, knocking once before entering. He was sitting behind his desk, talking over something with one of the _Times_ lawyers that Lois had met when they had first started the contract negotiations and language tweaks. Her own lawyer was reading some papers in a chair on the side of the desk she and Clark were on, noticing her only as she sat down. "Have all the details finally been ironed out, David, or are we going to be here for another week? I was supposed to have signed this thing _last_ Monday."

"We're almost there, Lois. I think we've got everything ironed out but we'll all go over the details one more time. Mr. Washington," he said to Marty, "would you care to read off the updated job expectations?"

Marty put on some reading glasses before taking the papers from the _Times_ lawyer, Lois covering a hand that Clark put on her shoulder with his own. Her specific role at the _Times_ had been the point of contention between them because Marty's claim that she would be doing the same job that she did at the _Planet_ had either been a lie or he had been woefully ignorant of what her job had been. Lois had been tempted to walk away from negotiations a couple times, content to take a job somewhere else, but after talking things through with Clark and Perry had decided that it was still too good of an opportunity to pass up. As a result she was only signing a one year contract instead of a three year deal that the _Times_ had initially wanted. No matter what they said, they knew what she was worth and therefore weren't going to push her out the door based on the number of years the contract would last. "Lois will write an Op-ed column a minimum of twice per week for the print edition in addition to posting her take on breaking news online unless otherwise worked out with her editor in advance. One print column will be for the Sunday edition each week. She'll do one investigative piece every other month that will be of a topic of her choice, as well as being assigned investigations. Lois will also appear at least once a month on a Sunday political talk show, but no more than three times per month."

"Determined to get your money's worth out of me, aren't you Marty?"

"For the amount we're going to be paying you, you bet we're going to keep you busy." Marty tossed the papers onto his desk, leaning back in his chair. "Had I known what the final number would be for your salary when I offered you this job a couple months ago I might have rethought bringing you on."

"No you wouldn't. You knew you were going to have to put up enough money for my family to see the value in moving halfway across the country, so don't act all aggrieved. Where did we land on the no compete clause?" Looking over to her lawyer, Lois took the papers out of his hands and flipped some pages to another portion of the contract that had been a point of contention. "Three months except for _Weekly_. I guess that will have to be acceptable. No way in hell I was going to be taken out of the game for six months."

"It was a standard no compete clause, Mrs. Kent," the _Times_ lawyer said, and Lois leveled a flat stare on him until he cleared his throat and looked away.

"If you want standard, find a standard journalist." Pulling a pen out of her purse, Lois clicked it a few times before looking over to David again. "Are these the official copies for signing, or do I need to come back tomorrow for that?"

"No, these are official."

"Finally," Lois muttered, flipping to the last page and signing her name where indicated. Handing those papers back to her lawyer, she got up and took the ones on Marty's desk and did the same before handing them to him, clicking her pen one last time. "Congratulations, Marty."

"Aren't I supposed to be saying that to you, Lane?"

Smirking, Lois dropped the pen back into her purse as she picked it up and settled it on her shoulder. "Obviously you never got the full story from Perry about what it's like to work with me. I look forward to opening your eyes a little bit to what it's like to work with the best. I'll see you in a week." With that she wrapped her arm around Clark's and they walked out of his office, Lois allowing herself to rest against him a little bit as they walked back to the elevators.

"'If you want standard, find a standard journalist.' You've never been mistaken for humble when it comes to your journalistic skills, Lois," Clark said, letting her walk into the elevator as the door opened before following her in, "but I would categorize what just happened as arrogant. Was there a reason you went in there like that?"

"I know that this is a huge opportunity, Clark, to work for the New York _Times_, and that they're paying me a lot of money to do so, but that doesn't mean I like being lied to. I was told that I would be in City, doing investigative pieces like I did back in Metropolis. I'm still trying to process that I'm going to be writing Op-ed pieces twice a week for the next year and doing fewer investigations. I know that I'll probably have one going with you most of the time, but still, why bring me in if you're not going to use me at what I'm best at full time?"

"One of the many mysteries of the world, Lois. Are you nervous about having to do something new?"

Looking up at him, Lois quirked an eyebrow and smiled at him. "Nervous about doing Op-ed pieces? I can do those in my sleep, Smallville, and you know that. I know that you and Perry had to talk me off the edge a couple times, but I thought about the amount of time I'm going to have to dedicate to my job before falling asleep lat night and came to the conclusion that this will allow me more time with the kids overall. I doubt Marty is going to be assigning me a myriad of investigations since he seems to think his current investigative team has that covered, so I'll do my one piece every other month and work with you on pieces for Perry. I get to do what I love and spend more time with the people I love. And I promise, Smallville, I'll be the most humble person at work when I start in a week."

Lois heard Clark scoff as they walked out of the elevator and into the building lobby. "You remember that I just said that you've never been mistaken for humble when it comes to your journalism prowess, right? I wasn't saying that because I felt like lying to you. Just try to be the same person you were when we worked together at the _Planet_ and I think we can count that as a victory. Without me there to keep you from going crazy on people, I think it's probably for the best that you signed a one year contract."

"Are you saying that without you working with me I'll be prone to lose control and unload on people, Smallville?" Lois asked, looking up at him as they walked through Manhattan towards their hotel.

"No, I'm saying that I was the last line of defense between the _Daily Planet_ staff and Hurricane Lane. I'm just hoping that you'll decide to be a tropical storm while working at an office without me."

"I did fine at the _Ledger_ without you as a so-called last line of defense."

"I know," Clark said, "but you also have a tendency to mellow yourself out when pregnant."

She couldn't dispute that, much as she wanted to. The last thing she wanted to be called was mellow, but through each pregnancy she had forced herself to be calm and reign in her reactions to things, especially during her pregnancy with Devon. With all that had been going on in her life, she thought it had been especially important that she not allow herself to get too crazy about things lest she lose control of all the stress she had been enduring. "That aside, today feels like a weird day to me to be taking a big life step like this."

"Why's that?"

"It's July 22nd, Clark." Off his look of confusion, Lois frowned and looked away, instead choosing to watch where they were walking. "It's the one year anniversary of the bombings in Metropolis."

"_Oh_," Clark said quietly, Lois just catching it above the sounds of the city. "Wow, I would have sworn that it had already been a year since the bombings. Feels like three or four."

"It feels like it's been ten, but it's only been the one." Lois checked her watch before shaking her head. "At this time of day one year ago, Metropolis was one of the best cities in America, if not the world, Chloe was still Chloe and Superman was still patrolling the skies. It's hard to believe that none of those things are true anymore."

"What a difference a year makes."

* * *

><p>Unhooking her seatbelt as Clark stopped their rental car in front of the house where they were meeting their realtor, she opened the door and stepped out, looking around at all the beautiful trees. "God, it's lush," she said, unable to help herself. "I didn't know that I had gotten so used to all the small trees that surrounded our old house. It was a newer subdivision so it was expected. This is gorgeous!"<p>

"I never knew that you would be so awed by a beautiful landscape around a house. That must be why you always kept coming back to the farm when we were younger." Clark grinned at her as he joined her in walking up to the house, where their realtor, Janice, was waiting for them by the front door.

"Mr. and Mrs. Kent, it's nice to see you again. Were you able to easily find your way?"

"No problems. The rental GPS did it's job well." Clark said, shaking her hand after Lois had done the same.

"Excellent. After some of the houses we looked at last week that you didn't like, I thought that this one might be more to your taste." She guided them inside, which they found was empty, unlike the last few houses they had looked at. They had asked that she find houses that they could move into quickly, considering she started work in six days and didn't want to spend weeks living out of a hotel again. "Built in 1958, it's got a bit of an odd design, in that part of the house is split level and the area with the living room, kitchen and dining room all on this level." She held out a hand and Lois walked the direction she was indicating, finding herself coming to a little landing where stairs went up to one level and down to another. "The master bedroom is on the top level, along with a smaller bedroom and a den area. There are three bedrooms on the lower level, all of roughly equal size, as well as a full bath."

"Is the lower level also the basement?" Lois asked.

"No, the basement is underneath this section of the house. The basement has a small living area, a bedroom and a bathroom as well. Would you like me to show you anything in particular, or would you like to look around on your own?"

"I think we can manage on our own, if you don't mind." Janice smiled and walked back towards the main area of the house, leaving them alone. "So, what do you want to look at first? Our bedroom or the kids rooms?"

They took their time looking around, looking at rooms, bathrooms, closets, the basement and the backyard, which had an in-ground pool, something Lois thought was odd for Connecticut, but would make Jacob jump for joy as he loved to swim whenever he had the chance. It was easily the best house they had looked at so far, and one that Lois could see herself living in for years on end, a place where Jacob, Cassidy and Devon could grow up. Hands in her pockets as she made her way through the house, she found Clark staring out a window, arms crossed over his chest in a way she wasn't used to seeing him do in regular clothes. "You always used to stand like that in tights," she said quietly as she got to him, smiling.

Frowning at her, he looked down at himself before uncrossing his arms, adjusting his glasses and smiling back at her. "I didn't even realize I was doing it."

"What were you thinking about?"

Clark turned and looked out the window again, not saying anything but nodding for a moment. "I was thinking..." He paused, then smiled at her again. "I was thinking that I really like this house. It's a beautiful area, the schools are supposed to be very good and there's plenty of space in the house even for our increasingly wild children. What do you think?"

"I think the same thing, Smallville." Staring out the window with him, Lois allowed herself a few moments of thoughtless enjoyment of where they were, and that there was an actual moment of peace in their lives. "We should tell Janice that we're interested, see what the specifics are. I'd like to bring the kids out to see the house, but I think Jacob would get attached in a second because of the pool. We can imagine a future here all we want, but I would hate for us or Jacob to get attached to a house we won't get."

"That wouldn't be ideal, would it?" Clark pulled his phone out of his pocket, checking the screen before looking at her again. "How about you go talk to Janice and I'll call the house inspector to set up a time for him to come out. With any luck he'll have some time this afternoon or tomorrow morning."

"Works for me," Lois said. Bumping him with her shoulder, he smiled at her as she winked at him before walking towards the front of the house, finding Janice standing just outside the front door. "You picked a winner, Janice. Let's get this figured out, because I don't want to have to be living out of a hotel any more than I have to."

* * *

><p>Pulling her hair back into a ponytail, Lois held it in place as she grabbed the hair tie she was holding between her teeth and got it in place, effectively neutralizing her hair from annoying her for a little while. Grabbing two of the pieces for the frame of Jacob's bed, she carried them inside and walked down to the lower level of bedrooms, making her way to the end of the hall until she got to the biggest room, which Jacob had quickly claimed as his due to him being the oldest. Cassidy hadn't made much of a fuss about it, though she had claimed to want the room, something Lois chalked up to hearing Jacob claiming that it was his. Devon hadn't voiced an opinion on the matter, though when they had first arrived she seemed to have taken in the scenery much the same as Lois had, her eyes wide and observing her new environment. When they had first shown the children the house after closing the deal a few days earlier Jacob had, as she thought, fallen in love with the house first and foremost because of the pool. He claimed that he was going to use it all the time, but Lois was skeptical that he was going to swim every day. She was just glad that it came with a fence built around it and a locking gate that would at least give the pretense of keeping her super children out of the pool area without supervision. The thing that would really give her peace of mind was that Clark was going to be working from home, which meant that he would have senses trained on the children at all times to keep them from trying to be sneaky. If there was a guarantee Lois would make about her children, it was that they would all eventually try to be sneaky. She just hoped it didn't get them into half as much trouble as her own sneakiness got her into.<p>

Setting the pieces of Jacob's bed on the floor amongst the other pieces and boxes of books, toys and clothes, Lois walked back outside and grabbed the last couple big pieces, all the screws and small bits having all ready gone into his room, hauling them inside where she put them into a pile with everything else. Looking around for a moment, she crossed her arms and tried to figure out how things should be arranged. She had asked Jacob about where he wanted things, but his answer of having the bed right in the middle of the room had disqualified his answer. The dresser could go where he had wanted it, but other than that it fell to her to give his room some semblance of order. Considering her son's penchant for not picking up after himself, she figured some sort of layout where it made things easiest on her to clean up when she was giving Clark a day off from that sort of chore would be best. Lois was about to call for Clark when she remembered all three kids were napping, Jacob having been convinced to lay down with Cassidy and Clark next to Devon's crib before promptly falling asleep. He was a lot like Clark in that respect, able to fall asleep at the drop of a hat. All either of them had to do was close their eyes and they could get a solid eight hours, and Clark didn't even need it! Walking out of Jacob's room and bounding up the stairs, Lois found them all where they had been an hour ago, on the floor sleeping. After taking a moment to smile and observe the family she found herself lucky enough to have made, she peeked into Devon's crib to make sure she was still napping before kneeling down next to Clark and giving him a nudge. He opened his eyes and blinked a couple times. "Good nap, Smallville?"

Sitting up, he blinked a couple more times. "Yeah, I guess. How long have we been out?"

"About an hour. I need you to come down to Jacob's room with me so you can do your thing and get everything put together and where it needs to be."

"Yeah, sure," he said, standing up as she did the same. "I'll meet you down there after I grab the monitor out of the kitchen." Nodding, Lois walked back down to Jacob's room and only had to wait a second before Clark came in behind her, putting his glasses back on. "Before we get started on this, is it just me or does it seem like we did things backwards with you doing moving stuff while I slept?"

"I would say yes, we did do things backwards, but since all three of them go down more easily for you than they do me, I think we'll just have to live with it. Plus, it wasn't exactly a big deal, getting Jacob's stuff inside, since most of it is on the small side, and what isn't breaks down into easily carried pieces." Walking across the bedroom, Lois pulled the blinds closed over the window so nobody would happen to spy Clark working at super speed. "If you can think of a better arrangement I'm happy to listen to ideas, but I'm thinking dresser in the corner next to the window, bed against that wall, bookshelf next to the closet and desk next to where you're standing so he doesn't have his back to the door." At Clark's raised eyebrow, Lois shrugged. "You know how that bugs me, so I figure it's a quirk I'll pass on."

"We could only be so lucky that such a quirk would be the worst one you pass along," Clark said teasingly, forcing Lois to walk across the room and punch him on the arm, same as she had been doing since the day she met him.

"You say that now, Smallville, but you know that the more like me our children are, the more you'll love them. Plus, if my quirks were really so bad, what does that say about _you_ marrying me and producing three children the could end up being just like me?"

"It says that I love a quirky woman and that I'm a glutton for punishment." He smiled at her before rubbing his hands together. "If you wouldn't mind stepping into the hallway for a moment, I'd rather not have to work around you for the next two seconds or so." Rolling her eyes, Lois did just that, and upon hearing and feeling the wind produced by his speed, she turned around and walked back into the room, where Clark was sitting on the bed, still smiling.

"I think you're getting old, Smallville," Lois said, smirking as she sat down next to him. "At the old house it took you half as long to get our room put together and set up."

"Considering all the toys, books, bits, baubles and junk that Jacob has accrued in his short life, you're lucky it only took me as long as it did." Clark glanced around the room before looking back to her. "I think we've gone to the giving him too much stuff side of parenting, Lo."

Looking around at the room and making a note of how clean it was, since she doubted it would ever be this clean again, Lois looked up at Clark. "It's not us. We do pretty well in managing how much stuff we give them and saying no when we need to. It's Grandma who likes to spoil them, and Grandpa General taking any holiday on the calendar, be it Arbor Day or Flag Day, to send Jacob toy tanks and little plastic military men. Or maybe it's Uncle Bruce randomly sending half a dozen gifts on a birthday, or Uncle Ollie and Aunt Dinah sending half a dozen gifts for Christmas. Or maybe it's Bart stopping by on a three second visit, from _my_ perspective, when he just happens to leave a chemistry set for Jacob. Maybe it's Diana and Kara each offering to train Cassidy and Devon when they come of an age to learn how to fight."

"That last one isn't a thing, Lo."

"No, it isn't," she said, grumbling. "But it is insulting! I will be the one to teach my daughters how to kick ass, thank you very much. Powers or no powers, nobody on Earth kicks ass like Lois Lane Kent!"

"You most certainly do not need to convince me of that fact." Using a finger to turn her face, he kissed her before standing up, pulling her up with him and guiding her towards the door. "Come on."

"Where are we going?"

"Up to see Devon."

Confused, Lois walked with him upstairs. "But I haven't heard her crying on the monitor, Smallville. You sure she's awake?"

"As it turns out, Mrs. Kent," Clark said, reaching into the crib as they reached it to pull out an awake and alert Devon, "my ears are still just a little bit better than the monitor is."

"See, now that's cheating, Smallville." Reaching over and taking Devon from him, Lois checked the time on her watch before walking over to one of the chairs they had all ready put in the den and sat down, adjusting her shirt and bra so that Devon could eat. "But, on the other hand, that kind of thing is very handy in avoiding the unhappy cries of a hungry baby looking for her afternoon snack."

"Never let it be said that there wasn't a good reason for marrying me."

"I can most certainly agree to that." Grinning, Lois looked down at the sleeping Jacob and Cassidy, who were on little pallets that Clark had thrown together with some sheets, smiling at how peaceful they were. "I think I can handle things here now, Smallville, now that one monster is nursing and the other two are conked. Why don't you put those big muscles to work and bring things in from the moving truck? You did suggest that was a role better suited to you than me earlier."

"Dirty trick, using my own words against me." He walked over and gave her another kiss, a gentle, lingering kiss that couldn't help but make Lois smile up at him. "But then, I always found your smarts sexy. Probably a contributing factor to the three children."

"My sexiness overflows, Smallville, and that will never change. Now go get to work before I put Devon back in her crib so I can do unspeakable things to you." Grinning Clark left the room, but Lois couldn't hold her smile. Sighing, she let her head fall back against the chair. "God, how I wish you would take the hint that I want to do unspeakable things to you," she whispered.

* * *

><p>"And that, Girly, is the story of how Mommy and Daddy met." Looking down at Devon, she watched as she yawned, her eyelids drooping slowly but surely. "You're fed, you're dry and you're sleepy, Devon. Take your nap and then we can do this all over again. It's no big deal, catching a couple hours of shuteye. I like to do it myself, and since I still think you're going to be very much like me, you should like it to." Rocking Devon lightly as she walked to her crib, Lois smiled as her girl fell asleep, laying her down in her crib and turning on the baby monitor as she left the room. If Devon could start going down for naps that easily on a regular basis, life would be just a little bit easier. Stretching as she walked down to the living room, passing through it and going into the kitchen, Lois found Clark sitting on one of the bar stools they had bought for the breakfast bar, typing on his laptop. "Working on your piece for Perry or our piece for Perry?" she asked as she passed him, going to the fridge and grabbing a soda.<p>

"My piece," Clark answered, looking up from his work. "It has farther to go and is due sooner. Been having trouble finding the right tone."

"I hate that. Not being able to find the tone is maddening." Taking a long swig of her drink, Lois pulled up a bar stool next to him, leaning on the counter after setting her drink down. "Do you want some help?"

Clark shook his head. "No, thanks, but I appreciate the offer. Thanks for putting Devon down, by the way, though it didn't seem to take very long. It would be nice if she started going down more easily more often rather than fighting like crazy to stay awake."

"Was thinking the same thing when she fell asleep," Lois said before taking another drink. "But no need to thank me for putting her down, Smallville. I know we have bottles in the fridge, but you had work to do and I keep her primary feedbags on me at all times." Frowning for a second, Lois ended up forced to roll her eyes at herself. "Remind me not to refer to my breasts as feedbags ever again."

"I think doing it that one time will stick in your mind enough that I won't have to, kind of like you never referring to your uterus as 'the baby carrier' again after calling it that once during your pregnancy with Jacob." He grinned at her. "Remember, it's think first, _then_ speak."

"If only somebody had told me that when I was younger, I may have avoided many, many embarrassing comments over the years." Lois was going to say more, but was interrupted by the doorbell. Wincing, she waited a moment to see if she heard the cries of an annoyed baby, but was greeted by silence. "That's a lucky break," Lois muttered. "I'll get the door. You keep working. By the way, where are Jacob and Cass?"

"Jacob's playing in his room and Cassidy is still napping."

Nodding, Lois jogged through the house to get to the door so whoever was there didn't ring the doorbell again, not wanting to press her luck that Devon hadn't awaken at the intrusion to her sleep. Checking out the window, Lois was surprised to see four familiar faces outside. She opened the door, smiling but surprised. "Bruce, Diana, nice to see you guys. You too, Oliver. J'onn," Lois said, nodding to him as she stepped aside so everybody could walk inside. "Did Clark know you guys were coming?"

"No, he doesn't," Bruce said, looking grim. "We're here to talk to him about League business. You can listen in, if you'd like. We won't be discussing any sensitive information."

"Thanks, I guess," Lois said, not sure she liked how this looked. Usually when she saw them they were smiling; right now they were all looking like they were walking into a fight. "If this is going to end up as a loud conversation, then I'd ask you guys to take it out back. Devon and Cass are napping." When they all nodded, Lois pointed back towards the kitchen. "He's just through there." Bruce, Diana and J'onn all walked back towards where Clark was sitting, but Oliver stayed with her. "Something I can help you with, Ollie?"

"We got a call a month ago from a reporter in Gotham that said she got the phone number from you. Vicki Vale Powers. She said that you referred her to us for protection. While I appreciate the danger she's in with the people she is taking on, what struck me as odd was that Bruce authorized protection for her." Oliver stepped closer to her, shoving his hands into his pockets as he did so. "Color me confused that he would do so when he has a tendency to severely frown upon other League members handling anything in Gotham. I asked him why he authorized it and he referred me to you."

"Bruce wouldn't tell you?"

"Bruce said it was your decision whether or not he reveal the information. He's usually vague, but this time made me curious because Bruce never approves anything. I looked her up after that. There was monitoring information of all sorts in the database but no picture. Here's where things get really strange: there's a note in the surveillance file that no pictures be taken of her. I haven't said anything more to Bruce since he wouldn't reveal anything anyway and it's been junior members guarding her, so I haven't had a chance to take a look, but I have to ask, Who the hell is she and why are you and Bruce diverting League resources for her protection?"

"Oliver," Lois said, looking down at the floor. She wanted to keep her a secret, not share the fact that she was still out there to keep her safe. But Oliver had known her for a long time, had helped keep her from getting herself killed for years. Much as she didn't like the idea of her identity being known by any more people, she couldn't keep hiding her from him when she had taken Bruce to task for doing the same thing. Taking in a long, deep breath, Lois pulled her phone out of her pocket and scrolled through some pictures before finding the one she wanted. Holding the phone out, Oliver took it from her and looked at the screen, his eyes going wide a second later. "It's not her, Oliver."

His eyes snapped up. "What do you mean it's not her? This is Chloe!"

"No, it's Vicki Vale," Lois said, taking her phone back. "Vicki Vale Powers since April. She got married two days after Devon was born."

"What... so, Chloe has a lookalike?"

Lois shook her head, knowing that she was going to have to explain things to Oliver. "I thought she died in the bombings. We all saw the video footage of her being thrown head first in the car when the ice cream parlor exploded. What I didn't know until the Kerth Awards ceremony in June was that Chloe had stayed low and gotten in contact with Bruce. He had her go to Gotham and then did some hoodoo voodoo brain stimulation thing that put Chloe to sleep and put Vicki Vale in her place. She's like Chloe, but she isn't Chloe. She wouldn't even know Chloe's name had I not mentioned it to her in a couple conversations we've had." Looking up, Lois met Oliver's eyes. "She's happy. She's married and trying to start a family. Bruce says Chloe can be brought back, but I won't take this from her. I can't. She was alone and afraid to live, burdened by the rigors of the life she had endured and guilt over what she tried to do to Lex. So Chloe Sullivan is dead." God, it still hurt her to have to say that.

"I understand," Oliver said quietly, "but I don't understand why there are no pictures of her. Don't newspapers usually run pictures of their reporters?"

"Not in Gotham. There are so many leaks that it probably doesn't matter, but papers in Gotham adopted the practice of not running pictures of their staff to make them harder to find by anybody that wants to do them harm. That's why I referred Vicki to you guys. She was attacked in her apartment once, and then her house was burned down last month. I assume that's all that has been done because Bruce has been keeping an eye on her, but I want more than part time protection." Swallowing, Lois looked back over her shoulder when she heard voices getting louder behind her. Turning, she looked back at Oliver. "I consider Vicki Vale a friend, and I want her safe and sound so she gets to enjoy her husband and future children. She deserves the same chance at happiness as the rest of us, especially considering the good work she is doing. Let's go see what's causing the ruckus."

"Lois, we're going to talk Clark into coming back to his Superman duties, and it may sound like we're saying some harsh things, but we have his best interests at heart. We think coming back to work will be good for him. Will you help us?"

Lois eyed Oliver for a second before motioning towards the kitchen.

* * *

><p>Clark was typing when he heard Bruce's voice just a few seconds after Lois had gone to answer the door. Looking over, he lowered his glasses and used his x-ray vision to see that Bruce, Diana, J'onn and Oliver were all there talking to Lois. Confused, he flipped over to a news website to see if there was something big going on that he had missed, but the news was actually pretty slow. That probably explained why they were at his house and not yelling for his help to get his attention. Closing his laptop, Clark stood up as Bruce, Diana and J'onn all approached him. None of them looked very happy to be there. "By the looks on your faces, I can tell that this isn't a surprise housewarming party," Clark said, knowing that it was something Lois probably would have said in the same situation.<p>

"Kal-El," Diana said, her hands behind her back. He was surprised to hear her use his full name like that. Usually she would just call him Kal unless they were in public. "We are here to make a formal request on behalf of the entirety of the Justice League membership that you resume your duties as a protector of Earth in two days."

"Why in two days?" Clark asked, taking off his glasses and tossing them next to his laptop as he did so.

J'onn stepped forward, now standing shoulder to shoulder with Diana. "In two days it will have been three months since your return from captivity. The usual allotment of time for an injured or recovering member is two months unless the severity of wounds dictate otherwise."

"Ah, I see," Clark said. "So you guys think that I've had my time off plus a whole extra month, and now it's time to get back to work?"

"You are a charter member of the League, Clark," J'onn said. "We allowed you extra time for recovery because of the nature of what happened to you, the physical and emotional tolls you endured. We believe it would be best now if you returned to the League and resumed your role as a beacon of hope for the world, that it would help you more than living only as Clark Kent."

"It's time to stop feeling sorry for yourself, Kent."

Looking over at Bruce, Clark frowned. "That's what you think I'm doing? Sitting here all day feeling sorry for myself?" He had said that more loudly than he had intended to, his surprise at being told he was feeling sorry for himself for the first time in a long time bringing up old feelings of defensiveness about the subject.

"I know that's what you're doing. It's what you did for years before becoming Superman. You sat around and you moped and you felt sorry for yourself because you didn't get to be human and normal and live out your life on your farm, or at least that's my interpretation of the stories I've heard." Bruce walked up to him from the wall he had been leaning against, moving a lot more like Batman than he usually did, almost as if he was readying himself for something. "It's time to suck it up, Kent, and get back to work. Metropolis is eating itself alive and the League gets daily questions about the whereabouts of Superman. I'm tired of members having to tell them that they have no comment, or just ignoring the question outright. I don't give a rat's ass what the reporters think about me, but the League does not need a perception problem because members are avoiding questions while you play house. You're a founding member of the Justice League and yet you're abandoning it. You were the face that everybody trusted would always tell the truth because _Superman doesn't lie_," Bruce said, just short of doing so with a sneer. "Well it's time to live up to that. Stop lying to yourself. Stop pretending that you're normal and that Superman was just something you did. Clark Kent is the disguise. Superman is who you are. That doesn't change because you want it to. Get off your ass and stop hiding!"

"Hey, keep it down!" Clark looked away from Bruce over to Lois, who was walking over with Oliver. "I thought I told you to take it outside if you were going to get loud."

"Uncle Oliver! Uncle J'onn!" a higher pitched voice suddenly called out, and Clark spotted Jacob running out and launching himself at his Martian friend, J'onn catching him just in the nick of time. "Aunt Diana, Uncle Bruce! You guys are here too?"

"They just came over to talk to me," Clark said, forcing a smile. J'onn put Jacob down and he ran over, Clark kneeling down. "This is kind of an adult conversation, Buddy, but it's not going to last much longer. Why don't you go find your glove in your room and we'll go outside and play some catch in a little while. I think I can take a break from my work long enough for that."

Jacob nodded, grinning widely before taking off back towards his room. Using his x-ray vision to make sure Jacob had gone back to his room, Clark blinked and looked back to the others. "I'm not coming back," he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Kal-El," Diana started, but Oliver put a hand up, stopping her.

"Clark, we need you. The world isn't as safe with you sitting on the sideline. Do you really want that kind of guilt sitting on your shoulders?" He looked over at Lois and nodded, and Clark turned to look at Lois. She stared at the floor for a second before looking up and meeting his eyes, giving a short nod before crossing the room and standing at his side.

"If Clark says he isn't going back to Superman duties, than I stand by his decision."

"What?" Oliver said, and Clark watched as she smirked.

"Hi, my name's Lois, Lois Lane _Kent_. I thought we had met before." She crossed her arms over her chest as the smirk melted away, suddenly looking just as intimidating as anybody in a room full of intimidating people. "I stand by my family. _Always_."

Smiling at her as Lois looked up at him, Clark let it slide off his face as he stood to his full height and mimicked her pose, one he thought she might be stealing from his alter ego. "You were wrong, Bruce. Clark Kent is who I am. Superman is what I can do. And you're right, Oliver, I will have to live with not helping people. I've done it before, and I'll do it again, because there are three people in my life that didn't sign up to have their father taken away from them at a young age. I'm going to do what's right for them."

"The world be damned?" Bruce asked.

"The world got by just fine without me before, and will do so again. The League is fine without me and is supposed to be bigger than one man, even Superman. If it isn't then it has serious problems." Looking down at Lois again, Clark smiled and continued. "If there's a global threat then I'll help, but until that day comes, consider Superman on a permanent hiatus from the Justice League, effective immediately." Looking back up, he met each of their gazes. "Is there anything else?"


	24. Chapter 24

- Chapter 24

Staring out the windshield, Lois rested her arm on the car door and watched as scenery passed came and went as Clark drove the car towards Gotham City. They were starting to come into the outer suburbs now, the scenery turning from coastal grasses to houses, strip malls and fast food restaurants. In that respect, Gotham was no different than any other major American city. Most who were able lived their daily lives away from the city, where they could see trees and own a little bit of property for themselves rather than be in a building with hundreds of other tenants. While Gotham was filled with corrupt politicians, judges and police, Lois thought that it would be easier to ignore or pretend that it didn't affect your life if you weren't right in the middle of it, if you kept your head down while in the city or just avoided it all together. She imagined that would be the only way she could live in Gotham City. Or Metropolis.

"I can't believe Devon is turning one this week," Clark said quietly, causing Lois to blink away her thoughts and look over at him.

"Believe it, Smallville." Lois couldn't help but smile as she thought about Devon when she had been a newborn. "She's walking by herself, babbles like crazy and almost has a few words figured out. She's officially on her way to growing out of being our baby."

"She'll always be the baby," Clark said, "but I know what you're saying. It's weird, thinking that we won't go through these milestones again. Not until we have grandchildren, at least, assuming that's possible. Hopefully there isn't a mule situation."

"Smallville, you better not be calling my kids mules, because those are the kinds of words that get you hurt."

He glanced over at her. "First of all, kids are baby goats, so calling them mules would just confuse the issue." Lois frowned at him, and he swallowed. "Right. Guess farm boy humor has no place with a potentially angry mother. What I meant is that mules are the offspring of a horse and a donkey, and generally are infertile because of the different number of chromosomes horses and donkeys have. I never thought to ask Jor-El about whether that was a possibility with our children."

"I better not be the donkey in this scenario," Lois muttered.

"I would never intimate such a thing. Mules are the products of male donkeys and female horses. If you were the donkey and I the horse then our children would be hinnies."

"Well then I feel _much_ better." Shaking her head, Lois grabbed her bottle of water and took a swig, letting the cold water run slowly down her throat. "You can remove the plaid, Smallville, but the farm will always been in your blood. Maybe I should have nicknamed you 'Hayseed' back when we first met."

"Never would have stuck. The only nickname that ever fit me was Smallville, or in Jimmy's case, CK. Will you check the GPS to make sure that we take this next exit? It would tell us but I know how you don't like the voice."

Tapping the screen on the dash to bring up the directions, Lois scanned where they were until she found what he wanted to know. "Just creepy having a disembodied voice telling you where to go and when."

"Tell me about it," Clark said, Lois knowing that he could sympathize with her dislike of the system.

"It's not this exit but the next one that you take. From there..." Lois trailed off, switching the screen to the map of the area. "Once you turn right, you'll take the third right onto Running Buck and then take the fourth left onto Oak Knoll." Sitting back, she left the screen on in case they needed to use it again. "How many people do you think Vicki's sister-in-law Beth invited to their first anniversary party?"

"I would imagine their whole group of friends, which from what you've told me is not a small group of people."

"Their whole group of friends, plus us." Lois let silence ensconce them while Clark exited off the highway, pulling onto the access road. He turned right at the first intersection before Lois continued her thought. "The amount of small talk we're going to have to make is not going to be fun. On the other hand, maybe they'll know who we are and what we do and therefore want to do nothing but heap praise upon us for our good works."

Clark scoffed. "When has that _ever_ happened?"

"Dream killer." Lois smiled up at him as they took the next right, and he smiled back before looking back to where he was driving. Tapping the screen again, Lois found the address for Beth's house. "We'll be looking for 12244 Oak Knoll." Looking up, Lois started looking at the houses around they were passing. They were not small. "All the times I've been in Gotham I've been in dark, dank downtown or Wayne Manor. It's hard to imagine that we're in the same city. These are some seriously nice houses."

"With the state Metropolis is in, would you imagine that our old house, or at least our old suburb, is part of a decaying city?"

"A fair point," Lois conceded, unable to find a point to argue. "I can't believe how bad things have gotten there."

"I'm sure the League probably offers to help all the time, but it's always the same story when a reporter actually bothers to ask the city council or the mayor what they're going to do about the crime rate."

"They always insist that Metropolis' crime rate isn't that much higher than it was before Superman came along, which is bullshit that nobody is believing." As Clark turned left onto their intended street, Lois started checking addresses before she spotted a large number of cars parked down the street, which was probably where they were headed. "They're going to stick to the party line until they get voted out and some people with sense, at least as much sense as politicians can have, are voted in. Considering there was an election last year and all the same morons are still there, it seems good sense has yet to rear its ugly head and our former home is going to keep dying its slow death." As they got to the group of cars, Clark pulled up behind the last one, putting the car into park as he did so. Lois got out and stretched, feeling even more stiff than she had back when she used to regularly drive back and forth between Smallville and Metropolis during her last couple of months at the _Planet_. Over three hours in a car didn't seem to agree with her body anymore. "Which house do you think it is?" she asked as Clark walked around the car and stood next to her.

Clark pointed at one across the street a few houses away. "12244, right?" She nodded. "Then that would be the one. Why do you think they're having a first anniversary party anyway? I remember our first anniversary, and besides the saves I made, I didn't want to be around anybody but you all day."

"Smallville, ours is not the place to question." Realizing what that implied as they crossed the street, Lois shook her head. "I mean, yes, we do question people for a living, but this is the kind of good thing that we should just be happy about. Vicki including us in her life in any way, shape or form is a good deal in my book. So to put it in terms you can understand, don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

"Thanks for clearing that up."

"That's what I do, Smallville." Pretty soon they were walking up the driveway to the house, and as they got to the door Lois knocked a couple times. "Say, we weren't supposed to bring a present to this thing, were we?" Before Clark could answer her question the door opened and a woman was smiling at them.

"You guys must be Lois and Clark! Hi! I'm Beth Davis, Vicki's sister-in-law," she said, reaching out to shake their hands. They did so and stepped inside, the noise of the party hitting them as they did.

"That is definitely us." Lois smiled at her looking around and making room for Clark to get inside. "Thank you so much for inviting us. Sorry if we're late and holding up the festivities. Sounds like things are in full swing."

"No, you're not late at all. There are still some stragglers that live much closer than you guys do that haven't gotten here yet." Beth smiled as she walked them through the house through groups of talking people. "I'm just glad you were able to make it all the way from Connecticut on a Sunday afternoon. Any friends of Vicki's are friends of mine. Oh!" Beth turned and started walking backwards as she spoke. "I watched you on _Sunday Talk _this morning, Lois, and thought you made Senator Walker look hilariously foolish. He talks out of his ass on his best days, but you made sure everybody that watched this morning knew just how much of a corporate mouthpiece he really is."

"Beth, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," Lois said, finding herself grinning from ear to ear. "When I first started doing the political talk shows I wasn't too fond of having to go on TV because I put my thoughts down better on paper, but it's days like today, when I get to put a jackass in his place, that makes the early Sunday mornings worth it. Plus, I wouldn't have missed this party for the world. An afternoon where I get to be Lois instead of Mom is a rare occasion." They came to a stop near the back of the house, and Lois could see Vicki standing outside next to her husband while talking to some people.

"I am very aware of how it's nice to have some time where the word mom isn't uttered, yelled, shrieked or groaned and am happy to provide an afternoon of relief for you. I think it's afternoons like this that allow us to recharge the batteries so we don't lose our minds in the interim." Beth turned and spotted Vicki out back before smiling at them again. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to drag the happy couple inside so they can say awkward and unexpected thanks in front of all of us at once."

Turning to face Clark, Lois nodded. "I like her. Had I a sister-in-law, I think she's what I would have wanted."

"Good to know." Clark motioned with his head as he pushed his glasses up on his nose. "Looks like she got them wrangled."

Beth led Vicki and Jeff inside, and Vicki waved at her as she was being ushered to the front of the room along with Jeff, Beth getting up onto a chair and holding up her hands to get the attention of everybody. "All right, folks. I know that a first anniversary party thrown by a sister is a little bit odd, I do, especially when it's taking place eight days before the _actual_ anniversary and a week before the day that the decision to elope was made. I promise, this is not just an excuse for us to pawn our kids off on others and party, and this would have happened next week but stupid Easter is in the way! The whole time Chuck and the girls are at church next week I'm going to be shaking a fist at the sky, asking God, or whoever's up there, why he decided to ruin my plans two thousand years in advance. But that's getting off topic! I thought this day would _never_ come, my brother married to a wonderful woman that loves him like crazy. None of us did. But thankfully, Jeff found Vicki, and through a whirlwind romance realized she is the woman he's supposed to spend his life with. Everybody who doesn't have a drink in hand, raise your hand and Chuck will get you one." Lois found herself among the few without a drink, and was brought a glass of water by a bearded guy who she assumed was Chuck. "Since these two eloped and left you all high and dry instead of having a real wedding, thus denying you all the chance to properly celebrate their commitment, we're doing it a year late, but better later than never." Beth raised a glass she had just gotten from Chuck up in the air, Lois doing the same s she noticed the others around her doing so. "To Jeff and Vicki. May they be happy together now and forever, and maybe even longer than that."

"To Jeff and Vicki," Lois said quietly as she lowered her raised glass and took a drink of the water.

"And now," Beth said, continuing, "some words from my big brother!"

A few people started whooping and hollering as Jeff stepped onto the chair after helping Beth down, and he motioned for them to quiet down as Vicki stood next to him. "You are all far too kind, and had Beth not wanted to make me speak in front of all of you, I would have thanked you individually first. But my sister scares me, so I'm up here first. Seriously, the woman is crazy. I've looked into having her committed, but there was too much paperwork, and that's coming from a lawyer!" Lois smiled as she heard other people laughing as Beth punch Jeff in the leg. "See! She was supposed to grow out of the hitting yet I still get bruised whenever I visit her. If I didn't know it was how she communicated that she loved me I would have moved across the country years ago! But that's not the important part of this afternoon's festivities. I know that you all worried about me. You worried that I was going to end up miserable because I was unmarried and without children. I was alone much of the time as I had shirked the unwritten law that said I was supposed to be looking for a wife by age thirty. Was it because I was a rebel? Was it because I was a late bloomer, a theory that my sister happened upon last year and has come to embrace? Was it because I liked how my life was and didn't see a need to change just because society said I should? You all may have your guesses, but I'll never tell that until Vicki came along I had never found a woman that I wanted to change my life for. That until Vicki I had never found a woman that challenged me and made me want to meet those challenges. That until Vicki I had never found a woman that made me want to do crazy things like eloping and imagining what a long term future with somebody might be like. But what I will tell all of you is this," Jeff said, smiling down at Vicki. "I love Vicki Vale Powers, and as of two days ago she is fourteen weeks pregnant!"

The room exploded in cheers and people start surging forward to congratulate the couple. Lois couldn't make herself move. She wanted to run up and hug Vicki for an hour, tell her how happy she was for her and how she was going to be a great mother, but she felt rooted to the spot. Clark smiled at her for a second before looking concerned. "Is something wrong?"

Lois closed her eyes and wiped away a few tears that had escaped. "No, Smallville. I'm happy." Shrugging, she smiled sadly before speaking quietly. "It's just bittersweet to see her happy and not be able to share in it the way I always thought I would."

* * *

><p>Hugs. So many hugs. Vicki thought by the end of this procession of people hugging and congratulating her, her arms might be stuck held out and slightly bent at the elbows. That, or she was going to wake up tomorrow with sore muscles in her arms. She was going to have to stretch when they got to their apartment after the party just to be safe, and drink plenty of water. Currently she was hugging it out with Will and Reid, both of whom had hugged her individually before double teaming her, both particularly thrilled that she was carrying Jeff's child. They had, oddly enough, taken the time to explain that it wasn't a gay thing, which hadn't crossed her mind, but that in raising their daughter Bella had watched Jeff be awesome with her and all subsequent children and were therefore thrilled that he was going to be awesome with his own child. It was oddly reminiscent of how he had explained Beth's reason for being so excited about their potential parenthood, which was that while she wanted nieces and nephews, she also wanted him to stop getting off easy when it came to children. Vicki had thought that sounded a little like Beth waiting to see him lose his mind, but considering she also liked that him being in love with her had made him less sane, it seemed to fit with their relationship.<p>

"So you're feeling good then?" Reid asked as he and Will released her both grinning ear to ear as Jeff slid in next to her.

"Yeah, I feel fine," Vicki said, shrugging. "I had about two weeks of really bad morning sickness, but since then it's mostly just occasional bouts of nausea. Actually lost a couple pounds for a little while, though when they weighed me at the doctor's office on Friday I was officially one pound over my pre-pregnancy weight. I think all weight gain is in the girls though," she said as she waved her hand around her breasts. "Jeff likes to joke that I got visited by the boob fairy, but since I won't let him touch them, because _whoa_ are they sensitive, I guess that's fair." Pulling her shirt tight against her stomach and turning a little to the side, she displayed the tiny swell bellow her navel that Jeff thought was due to the baby. Vicki was fairly certain it looked no different than it had for the past few years. "He insists that I've gotten bigger down here, too, but I don't see it."

"She's in denial." Jeff rested a hand down where the supposed swell was, nodding at Will and Reid. "Vicki is a workout monster. She was all muscle from sternum to..." He paused and looked at her, and she gave a little shake of her head while rolling her eyes. "Well, let's just say she has a very muscular abdomen that she would work on daily. Anything that isn't flat is the baby trying to make itself known to the public."

"Oh for crying out loud! Yes, I have a muscular stomach, but I've had that little bit of fat that I couldn't get rid of down low where my so-called bump is for a few years now, which is very bothersome, by the way." Pulling up her shirt, Vicki slapped her stomach a couple times, though she did so more gently than she once would have to be safe. "See? Still flat. Where you had your hand has been like that for years. Just wait a couple more weeks and I'm sure I'll have exploded, or whatever the term is for muscle giving way to uterus."

"Question," Jeff said, smiling at her. "Did the first pair of jeans you tried to put on today fit?"

"No," Vicki ground out, having put that unfortunate episode out of her mind. Her favorite pair of jeans barely fitting over her hips and not buttoning by a good half inch after not having worn them for ten days because of warm weather the previous weekend had not amused her, not even a little bit.

"Then I maintain, Mrs. Powers, that you are indeed showing, and the area upon which I rested my hand was indeed the area in which you are growing our son or daughter."

Trying not to smile, Vicki shook her head and looked over to Will and Reid. "I believe Jeff has just proven why smart people don't get married to lawyers. Of course, smart lawyers should know not to bring up the fact that my favorite jeans didn't fit this morning."

"Rookie mistake," Reid said, nodding.

"You hate to see it," Will added, shaking his head. "I know you guys were trying for a while, so what finally did the trick? Anything special, or did you just finally hit the jackpot?"

"Oddly enough," Vicki said, "I overheard a conversation at work that some women were having about getting pregnant and one of them talked about how her sister, a hard core workout warrior like myself, reduced how much exercise she was doing on a recommendation from her doctor when she had gone almost a year without conceiving." She took a sip of her water to wet her throat before continuing. "I liked to workout for at least an hour every day, so I cut back to half an hour five times a week. Next thing you know I'm growing a baby."

"Strange. We're going to go this way but I'm sure we'll talk again and you can tell me why working out too much would have an effect on fertility," Will said, smiling as he and Reid slowly moved away and started mingling with over people trying to get their attention. That was when Jeff was suddenly pulled into a hug from behind, and peeking around, Vicki noticed that Beth was going at it again. Everybody but Lois and Clark had come around so far, but Beth was getting Jeff for the third time, and Vicki had no doubt that she would get a third hug out of her sister-in-law as well. True to form, she did find herself hugging Beth soon enough. She thought that Jeff's sister might be happier than they were the way she was reacting, though Vicki had to admit that she had been pretty deliriously happy after the positive pregnancy test and doctor confirmation, though the two weeks of morning sickness hell had brought her back down to earth.

"The popular terms for it are blossoming and popping," Beth said to her, and it took Vicki a second to realize what she was talking about when Beth grinned and shrugged as she stepped back. "Sorry. I'm having trouble getting more than about ten feet away from you guys and I overheard you talking about how you haven't 'exploded' yet. I think you should stick with that instead of the popular terms. Blossoming sounds ridiculous and popping sounds like you should be dancing."

Vicki smiled at her. "Yeah, I think I'll stick with exploding if those are my options. And please, stay as close to us as you want. I know how excited you are for Jeff to not have an out at the end of the day when it comes to children. Plus, you know, a niece or nephew to love."

"Are you guys going to find out if it's a boy or a girl?"

"We're going to be surprised," Jeff said, chiming in on the conversation. "I'll be forty-one in five days and Vicki will be celebrating the ninth anniversary of her twenty-ninth birthday in August, and we figure if we've waited this long to have kids then what's another few months to wait before finding out if it's a future Powers or a future former Powers."

"What an odd way to put it," Beth said, shaking her head. She looked like she was going to say more but the doorbell rang and she started backing away. "Consider this your break from me being around you guys. Take advantage of it!"

As Beth disappeared into the crowd towards the front door, Vicki let her head loll back and started shaking her arms. "You have too many friends. I mean, I can see why you do, because I like all of them, but there are so many! I don't think I would be able to keep track of everything if I had a group of friends this big. This is why I have, like, two friends. Three, I guess, if you count Ashley, but I'm not sure it counts."

"That is definitely more of a mentor/mentee relationship, though I don't think Ashley is aware of that. You would think that by now she would be trying to strike out on her own more and make a name for herself rather than always coming to you."

"You would think," Vicki said, shrugging as she rubbed a hand over her face. "Then again, there's a reason she was hired at the _Gazette_ at twenty-four. She has all the talent in the world, and I've almost got her molded into a proper journalist. Let's just hope that she doesn't fall back into any bad habits when I eventually take my maternity leave. I think that will be her true sink or swim test." Looking around the room, Vicki spotted Lois and Clark talking to Donovan, Karen and Julio over by the back door, where she had seen Lois and Clark standing earlier when Beth had been ushering them inside to make Jeff speak and where they had sprung their surprise on everybody. "Hey, I'm going to go talk to Lois. You think you'll survive without me?"

"Do you think my sister would allow me to not survive on a day like this?"

"Good point." Leaving Jeff to find people to talk to on his own, Vicki threaded her way through people, smiling at spoken congratulations and returning quick hugs until she got toe her intended destination. "Do you guys mind if I steal Lois for a few minutes?" she asked, and everybody seemed to notice she was there at the same time.

"Go ahead," Karen said, exhaling loudly. "We were talking about her appearance on a TV show this morning and every time I think I've got a counter for her arguments she starts talking circles around me."

"Sounds like Lois." Vicki guided Lois over to a spot where they could talk, and made sure they were out of earshot of the others before leaning in. "Karen isn't known for her debating prowess, though she has a masters degree in..." Vicki frowned, unable to remember what exactly Karen's degree was in. It had been a year since she had met her, so should she have been able to remember it by now. "Damn, I should know this."

"It wasn't that bad," Lois said with grin. "She didn't believe the arguments she was making so much as playing Devil's Advocate and wondering what I would have said had the Senator made his arguments differently." Lois blinked and suddenly threw up her hands. "Oh! And congratulations, of course! I would have said that sooner but I saw you getting mobbed earlier and figured I wouldn't pile on. Do you have it in you for one more quick hug?"

"I do," Vicki said, letting Lois envelop her quickly. "I would ask you how you're doing, but I remember what it's like, having everybody think you need to be checked up on and treated like you're an invalid. I know it's day one for you, but news got around my office in one day and by the time I got home that night I was ready to throw down with the next person that inquired as to how I was feeling. To be fair, it took six months for me to come to terms with not being allowed to drink coffee, so I may have just been having a bad withdrawal day. The upside is that people suddenly don't mind doing things for you."

"Silver linings and all that, I guess. And I appreciate that you wanted to save me from any excess hugging and questions, but today I'm feeling good, aside from an unfortunate incident with jeans not fitting." Sighing, Vicki couldn't help but smile. "Other than that and a few days where I was overly emotional I feel like myself. I feel pregnant, I guess, though I'm not sure what that even means."

"Nauseated, bloated and heavy up top with no control over your own body."

"Oh. Well then, I guess I do feel pregnant. Good to know."

Grinning, Lois crossed her arms and leaned against the wall they were standing next to. "That's obviously a personal definition, though I don't think you will find many women that disagree with it. My sister, though, she went through her whole pregnancy without one bout of morning sickness. While mine wasn't all that bad with my two girls, when I was pregnant with Jacob I was sick like crazy for, like, two weeks. I found out with him when I was five weeks along, and it wasn't too bad for a little while, just the occasional nausea when Clark would bring home what was usually irresistible greasy pizzas or we would stop for fast food. Then I hit week eight and _holy shit_ was I sick. At one point I think I actually threw up my stomach and had to swallow it back down. Gross, yes, but I'm still convinced it's true. My dad told me that my mom and my aunt were the same way when they were pregnant. I ended up losing enough weight that I hadn't gained any weight overall until almost week 14, where you are now."

"Weird," Vicki said, turning and leaning back against the wall herself. "I had that same exact thing on almost the exact same time frame. When I visited my doctor Friday it was the first time I had gone over my usual weight, and only by one pound."

"Really?" Lois said, eyebrows high as she made a face. "That _is_ weird that we would have similar symptoms like that." She paused before continuing. "Not counting my mom and aunt, maybe it's a female journalist thing, though admittedly you are the first fellow journalist I've ever really liked enough to talk about this with. As I always used to say at the _Planet,_ there's my husband, there's my cousin, there's Perry and then there are competitors."

"Probably a good philosophy. Keeps up your edge, I imagine."

"It did, yeah, but I got a little tired of being looked at as unapproachable." She paused and grimaced. "Well, _Perry_ got tired of me being disinterested in others so he made me run City from time to time so as to force me to 'learn how to play well with the other kids'." Lois rolled her eyes before continuing. "Anyway, after I had my son I seemed to become more approachable overnight, like having a baby had suddenly turned me into somebody else. While true in a way, I'm not _that_ different. I guess I was perceived differently, which is weird. Who knew creating a person made people like you more?"

Vicki nodded. "What gets me is that I'm not doing something that nobody has done before but people act like I am, like I'm doing this _huge_ thing."

"It's huge. Don't underestimate how much your life is going to change. But I have a theory that it's more of a 'Welcome to the club' situation, whereas parents know what awaits new parents, and it's kind of like knowing there's a train wreck about to happen and wanting to watch it. That, or people are miserable and misery loves company. It's probably a coin flip depending on the person."

"Or, of course, there's the group of people genuinely happy that their friend is going to be just like them," Vicki said, waving a hand around at the room full of people. "I honestly did not expect the room to _cheer_ when Jeff announced that I was pregnant. I also didn't expect to be telling everybody all at once. We were planning on telling Beth today since it's her birthday but then she sprang this party on us. I mean, we knew about it in advance, of course, but it was supposed to be for her birthday. We got here early to help setup while her husband dropped their kids off at friends houses and then Beth drops the anniversary party bomb on us, celebrating because there wasn't a wedding for everybody to attend, et cetera. You heard the speech. I didn't know you were going to be here until about an hour before you got here."

"Huh. I wonder how she got my email address to invite me?"

"That I can explain." Pulling off her glasses, Vicki started cleaning off the lenses with the bottom of her shirt. "Beth asked me if I wanted to invite anybody to the party today, which obviously should have been a sign of what was to come, but I was having a long day when she asked so I never thought about why she would ask. I only had two names to drop, which were Lois Lane and Bruce Wayne, and the more reliable of the two is here."

"I am hurt by that, Vicki. _Hurt_."

Confused, Vicki looked around for the source of the voice until he emerged from behind Lois. "Bruce? When did you get here? And how did I not notice? You make waves wherever you go!"

"Did you think I would miss a party that I was invited to by the family of Vicki Vale?" Bruce said with a grin. He gave Lois a quick squeeze on the shoulder before pulling Vicki into a gentle hug. As they separated, he adjusted his sleeves underneath his sport coat. "I hear congratulations are in order. So much for Vicki Vale never being tamed."

"I am not _tamed_," Vicki said, frowning. "I'm simply lowering my craziness factor from 'Jesus Christ, what is she doing?' to 'Good God, what is wrong with her?' Slight difference, but I am going to take things down a notch. Doesn't mean I won't still be me. I'm sure you're aware of what Lois has accomplished since she had children. Did you ever accuse her of being tamed?"

"Damn well better not," she heard Lois mutter.

"I have never leveled that accusation toward Lois, no. Of course, for years she had a the ability to take wild risks because of her association with Superman. He always seemed to keep her, and many others in Metropolis, very safe. But now that there's no more Superman, I could ask her how she has changed what she does, how she has changed the way she goes about her job because of having children. One would be insane not to approach things differently after Superman's disappearance." Vicki couldn't help but notice the glare Lois shot at Bruce before walking away. Bruce didn't even glance back.

"Aren't you supposed to be charming and polite? Not sure how pointing out that a woman's close friend disappeared off the face of the earth qualifies as either of those."

"I'll apologize to her before I leave. She and I have had something of a difference of opinion on a few things over the past year, so when I saw an opportunity to needle her it was difficult to resist." Suddenly his face went from looking serious to wearing that half grin he always had in pictures, that look that made it perfectly clear he knew he could do anything he wanted and get away with it because of his money. "So, since you're not going to be drinking, does that mean I get your alcohol?"

"Unbelievable," Vicki muttered, shaking her head. "At some point, Bruce, you're going to have to become a serious human being."

"I'm putting it off for as long as possible. Now, sadly, I can't actually drink your portion of the alcohol this afternoon because I have some business to attend to in an hour before a charity function at Wayne Enterprises that I have to attend this evening," he said, shrugging. "I'm hoping I might have some fun in spite of the event. But truly, I'm happy for you. I'm glad you're leading the life you want, even if that doesn't include being my vapid girlfriend."

Vicki smiled as Bruce grinned at her. "Thank you, Bruce. I hope you don't get too bored this evening. If nothing else, at least dance with the _Gazette's_ social editor since she'll be there. She would be thrilled."

"Duly noted, Mrs. Powers. And for the record, I know you'll never be tamed. The best women never are." That half grin appeared out of the blue again. "That's why I keep hoping that I'll run into Catwoman. She sounds like _a lot_ of fun."

* * *

><p>Using her finger to stir the drink she had just mixed, hoping it would take the edge off the annoyance that Bruce had stirred up in her, Lois turned around to get back to mingling when she found herself staring at the target of her ire, who was standing only a few feet in front of her. "If you're here to take more jabs, don't. You made your point."<p>

"No more jabs. Let's talk out front for a minute." As much as she wanted to tell him to go ahead without her, Lois's curiosity got the best of her, as was the usual. Following him, she took a sip of her drink as they walked outside, Bruce taking a moment to thank Beth for inviting him and explaining that he had some business to attend to an couldn't stay. Once they were outside, they walked to the end of the driveway before Bruce stopped. "I have a business proposition for you."

"Oh? And what would that be?"

"This isn't public knowledge yet, and the deal isn't final, but Wayne Enterprises Media Holdings is in the process of acquiring the _Daily Planet_, and I plan to restore it to its proper place among the best newspapers in the country, if not world. I know that you have a one year contract with the _Times_ that will run out in July, so this is me officially offering you a return to the _Daily Planet._ Clark is, of course, also a part of this offer, but you can understand why I'm talking to you first."

"An interesting offer," Lois said quietly before sipping at her drink. "But we're happy in Connecticut. I'm doing some of my best work for the _Times_ and Clark is doing great work for Perry's _Weekly_. We bought a house less than a year ago. We moved the kids halfway across the country after basically getting run out of the city I had dedicated my professional life to helping be great. I think I'll just re-up my contract rather than go through moving again just to have people not read my work. Plus, if Perry won't be my editor, I don't want to work there."

"What if you were the editor?"

Lois scoffed, shaking her head. "If I were to become editor-in-chief, not only would I see my children even less than I all ready do but I would also not be getting to do what I really love, which is investigative reporting. Thanks but no thanks."

"Figured I would ask. Were you to go back to the _Daily Planet_ you and Clark would be two of the highest paid journalists in the country, you wouldn't have to give up writing for _Weekly_ and I would buy your house at a fifty percent markup from what you two paid when you bought it."

"Fifty per... wow, you really want us back."

Bruce looked around for a minute before saying anything, like he was trying to decide something and keep an eye on every bush on the street. "The _Daily Planet_ deserves to be better than what it is these days, which is a rag. I want the best there. Despite our differences of opinion on some important topics, you and Clark are two of the best, especially as a team. I'll have more to say about this the next time we see each other. Think about it."


	25. Chapter 25

- Chapter 25

Lois couldn't help but frown as Bruce turned and walked away, leaving her standing there to drink her drink and ponder his offer to go back to Metropolis. Were the city not a shell of its former self and the paper simply having a down swing she would have been more than happy to go back, but the city was different now. When it had lost Superman it had lost its heart, and while that made her sad, she had no desire to go back to the scene of her biggest professional failure. Not being able to convince the people of Metropolis that they had to believe in Superman no matter what would always be a regret, one that she didn't imagine she would ever be able to shrug off, no matter how much she wanted to pretend she didn't care. Walking back up the driveway, Lois finished her drink as she walked back into the house, taking her empty glass and dumping it in a garbage can in the kitchen. Thinking about making another drink, she decided not to, desiring to actually be awake on their drive home later on rather than nodding off and leaving Clark to drive while listening to her snore. Plus, she had to take advantage of her precious free time, the little she had when she wasn't surrounded by her tiny Kents. Grabbing another disposable cup, Lois poured herself a glass of water and walked back into the living room, stopping as she spotted Vicki and Jeff sharing a moment together with none of their friends in the middle of. It was just the two of them, in love and taking a moment to be happy with each other, probably because they were going to have a baby. She remembered when she had liked to steal a few moments now and then with Clark while they were at work, surrounded by even more people than Jeff and Vicki were now. Now it often felt like seeing him in bed when they were going to sleep was stealing moments. "They're good together, aren't they?" Looking over at a woman that had stepped up on her right, Lois nodded and smiled.

"They are, and I'm happy for them. I'm glad Vicki found somebody to jump into a life with." Realizing she hadn't yet met the woman next to her, Lois held out a hand. "I'm Lois," she said, smiling.

"Lois Lane," the other woman said, nodding and shaking her hand. "I love your work. I used to peruse it when you were at the _Daily Planet_, but when you moved to the _Times_ Vicki made us all start reading everything you did. Said you were too good to miss, and it didn't take more than a column to realize she was right. Sam, by the way," she said, "Sam Parkes."

"Sam, ok. When Vicki has mentioned her large new group of friends, she usually mentions you and Beth as being the ones she has conversed with the most, the ones she shares the most with. It's nice to put a face to the name, same as I was able to with Beth."

"It's nice to know that she mentions me. Acclimating can be a problem when you're new into an established group of friends, but Vicki seemed to take it all in stride. I don't think Jeff was entirely truthful with her when explaining how all encompassing and time consuming our group can be. Our birthdays, kids birthdays, watching each others children so couples can have a date night, various holiday get-togethers and all the other things that go with friendship. With us you have to be all in or you're toast, and she went all in. And we're all glad she did," Sam added with a smile. "With some people you don't just marry the guy, you marry his family. For her, you don't just marry Jeff, you marry his friends, too."

"That was, fortunately, a problem I did not have." Crossing her arms, Lois smiled as she continued to watch Vicki and Jeff, Vicki swatting at him after he whispered something in her ear. "Clark and I knew each other years before we ever got together. My cousin Chloe and he became friends when she moved to Smallville, Kansas, a farm town two or three hours outside Metropolis. I lived with him and his family for a while, and got so close that by the time Clark came back from traveling the world after college that I considered his mom a surrogate mother. She was all ready family before I ever became family." Sighing, Lois looked down at the floor before looking up to talk to Sam again. "I miss what they have," she said, nodding towards Vicki and Jeff.

"When it's still new and exciting," Sam added.

"When the problems don't seem so big," Lois said quietly before thinking. Swiping at a damp corner of her eye, Lois tried to smile at Sam. "Sorry, not sure where this came from."

"It's ok," Sam said. "I know we just met, but I'm a good listener if you need somebody to talk to. You could call me a professional listener, actually, and if you're a friend of Vicki's then I consider you a friend of mine, and I like helping my friends."

"Thank you, but I just..." Lois trailed off, biting the inside of her cheek. "I don't want to dump my problems onto somebody else. We all have things we have to work through, myself included."

Sam put a hand on Lois's back gently and started guiding her towards the door. "Come on. We'll step out front and talk for a few minutes. You'll feel better, I promise." As they walked out front and got to some chairs, they sat down, Lois resting her elbows on her knees.

"I really don't want to impose on you, Sam. You have to listen to people go on and on about their problems all week every week. I appreciate the gesture, but really, I'm fine."

"There are therapists that do the work because they're curious about what makes the human mind tick. There are therapists that go through the week waiting for the weekend so they don't have to listen to people talk anymore." Sam smiled as she laid a hand on Lois's shoulder. "I became a therapist because I wanted to help people feel better. I would always see people struggling with issues when I was younger and I would want to help, but I didn't know how. So when I was trying to decide what to do with my life in college, I thought about what would give me the most pleasure in life. Helping people by letting them get things off their chests, helping my friends if they were struggling with something... it makes me happy. So please, allow me my happiness so that I can help you have your own."

"Well, when you put it that way..." Taking a deep breath, Lois attempted to collect herself a little bit, and also tried to figure out what exactly she could and couldn't share. "Clark and I... well, we've been together for a while, but the heat in our relationship never wavered. From day one of the relationship we were all over each other. But since Clark got back from..." Pausing, Lois knew she couldn't divulge anything Superman related, but a scenario popped into her head that was close enough that maybe Sam could give insight in that way. "Here's the story: Clark wasn't hurt and hit with amnesia in the Metropolis bombings. He went to East Africa to cover a story, to do an exclusive interview with the leader of a notable rebel faction. It was front page kind of stuff, and while I would normally do that story, Clark was more familiar with the area because of his time traveling after college. So he goes, but he never makes it to the interview. He was captured by the government and imprisoned, except nobody knows this. I get word he no-showed the interview roughly an hour before the bombings and my house is attacked and burned down. So it's all hush hush, nobody knows, and now he has disappeared. Well, after the bombings and my ridiculous day, when I finally confer with my editor, we cook up the story that Clark was in the city and nobody has been able to find him. We don't want it in public that he's been captured because we don't even know who has him at that point."

Taking a second to think about what she was saying, Lois realized that had she chosen it, she might have been able to go into writing fiction, or maybe improv. This was some of the best storytelling she had ever done. "So, long story short, we look for him for months. I found out I was pregnant during this time, which just adds another level of stress on top of first losing my husband, my house, then Superman disappearing, then losing my job. So, after I give birth to my youngest, Devon, I'm trying to be a single mom to three children and basically just hold myself together. Two friends at this time have tracked down a credible lead, but decide not to share it with me. They find who is holding him, and are able to pay a ransom for his release. That's a situation where having friends like Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen comes in handy," Lois said, smiling.

"I should say so."

"So they get him out, and one month to the day after my daughter was born Clark knocks on the door to the apartment in Smallville we were living in. The reunion is... well, it wasn't one of those things where you jump into each others arms and everything is suddenly perfect. I was holding the baby when answering the door, so that news got broken pretty quickly, and he was kind of in shock about it. I had to get used to him being around again, and though we got back into a routine, it felt different. Clark was there, but he wasn't always _there_." Frowning, Lois didn't know if that was a good enough description for what had been going on, but it was the best she could do. "The strangest thing was that when I was ready to have sex again a few weeks later, he didn't take any of my hints, didn't jump at any of the innuendo that had always worked before. This was in... June, around the first time I met Vicki at the Kerth Awards. This continues for months, until after we moved to Connecticut. I finally lost it one night, questioning if he even found me sexy anymore, if I was a woman to him anymore or just his wife. He apologized, and since then we've been regularly having sex, except... except it's like when he had first come back. He's with me, but he isn't really there. The intimacy that was always so strong in our love life is gone. He goes through the motions, and it's still pleasurable, but it's not what it was. It's just sex. Before he was captured we always made love, corny and dumb as that sounds. Even when it was early on in our relationship, there was always a tenderness in the way Clark looked at me, in the way he touched me. Now... now he could be having sex with anybody, from the way he acts. It's like he realized he had a duty to try and keep me sexually fulfilled rather than wanting to actually be with me."

"Did Clark ever tell you about what happened to him when he was captured?"

"He told me some," Lois said, sighing as she sat back. "He told me that there was torture, sometimes daily, but he spared me the gory details. I don't know how he got through it, how he was able to keep going, but he came back to me. I'm so unbelievably thankful for that, for his being home and alive, that I'm mad at myself for even considering this an issue. I feel incredibly selfish, after everything he went through, to have complaints about our relationship. I'm ashamed that I broke once, that I lost it about us not having sex, and after doing that now I'm complaining about the quality of the sex? I mean, what the hell is wrong with me that I can't just be thankful and adapt?"

"It can be hard to adapt to good when you had excellent," Sam said. "And there's nothing wrong with you. You want the relationship that you had before Clark was captured. There's nothing wrong with that. You might have to adapt, but that doesn't mean sacrificing your own happiness. Has anything else about Clark changed? Is it just your sex life, or has there been a change in his personality, his demeanor, anything like that?"

"He's still my Smallville, but there is a little bit of difference. Clark was an optimist, a believer that given the opportunity a person will always do the right thing. It was annoying when I first got to know him, but as time went by it was something I grew to love about him. He never thought the worst of people and would always give them a chance to redeem themselves. Now... he's still an optimist, but he's more guarded. Another thing is that he doesn't go into our basement. At our house in Metropolis he had a pool table and a television down there, a place he could retreat to watch sports or a place to relax. He won't even go down into the one we have now." Lois frowned, surprised that she hadn't thought about that much until now. She had noted it, but it had never occurred to her that it could be related to anything else.

"Does he have nightmares more than he used to?"

Lois nodded. "He could always get by on less sleep than most people, which really came in handy with our first two children, but now his sleep is more fitful, and he has woken up suddenly from nightmares more since coming home than in the rest of our relationship."

"I don't want to give you a diagnosis, obviously, because I would need to talk to Clark before anything, but from what you describe, I would urge you to have him go to somebody to get checked out for post traumatic stress. Usually when people come home from an ordeal like what he endured, getting into sessions with a therapist should be step one. It doesn't sound like he ever sought counseling, though, so I would talk to him about it. He may not want to but tell him all the things we've talked about and how it's making you feel."

"Post traumatic stress," Lois said quietly, closing her eyes and smacking herself in the forehead with her palm a few times. "God... My father was a General in the Army and talked about losing good men to PTSD. I should have... how did I miss that? I've known soldiers that came back from combat and exhibited the exact same symptoms, but put them right in front of my face and I totally miss it."

"Don't be hard on yourself, Lois. We see change in the people we love and just attribute it to life. Sometimes we need a third party to point out things that we already knew but couldn't see because of our own feelings. Experience or no, PTSD presents differently in everybody and with something like this, the symptoms can be attributed to other things. It's not an easy problem, but it's a workable one. Have Clark talk to somebody. I promise that it can help." Sam smiled at her, taking her hand into her own, and Lois felt her give it a reassuring squeeze. "Do you feel better having gotten that off your chest?"

"I do," Lois conceded. "But I won't really feel better until Clark feels better."

* * *

><p>"You told her <em>what<em>?" Clark asked, looking away from the highway in shock at what Lois had just told him. He couldn't help but stare for as long as he felt comfortable on the empty road as they drove back from Gotham to Stamford. They had left less than an hour ago, and after spending the first half hour of the drive in comfortable silence Lois had started talking about how much she had enjoyed the party and getting to know the people around Vicki. She had yet to talk about Vicki being pregnant but he knew there would be something coming on that topic at some point. But then she had dropped a bomb on him, that she had talked to Vicki's psychologist friend Sam about what had happened to him, or at least had related similar events.

"I told her something as close to the truth as I could present, Clark."

"Why didn't you talk to me?"

"Clark, I want to talk to you. Every day I try to make myself bring up the things I talked to Sam about with you but I chicken out because I am scared that I will make things worse, that I'll hurt you."

Rubbing a hand over his face, Clark started running his tongue along the backside of his teeth, trying to think of what it was in their relationship that could have piled up so high that she felt the need to talk to somebody else because she was afraid of talking to him. Was it something to do with his capture? He couldn't think of anything off the top of his head, and yeah, he had occasionally zoned out and had flashbacks when he had first come home, but they happened less now, even if they still were extremely vivid. "I mean... I'm sorry that you don't feel like you can talk to me, Lois, because you can. Never be afraid of talking to me, please. Anything you have to say about our relationship comes from a place of love, and I know that, no matter how difficult the topic is."

"Clark... look, I think we should wait until we get home. Tonight, after the kids go to bed, we can sit down and talk about what Sam and I discussed in the comfort of our own home instead of a car while you're driving."

Clark glanced over at her. "I can still multitask pretty well, Lo. Come on. If this is serious enough that you need to talk and confide, then we should do this now, sooner rather than later. I don't want to put this off if you've had trouble bringing it up before." Reaching over with his free hand, he gently grabbed hers and entwined their fingers. "Please. I don't want this to hang over our head while we drive home."

"We've lost something."

Frowning, Clark tried to figure out what she meant. She obviously wasn't talking about a physical item, but thinking about their relationship since he had come back, he couldn't come up with something that was drastically different than from before, except where they lived and worked. "Nothing feels missing to me, Lois. We're together and we're happy. We have the children. We have jobs and a beautiful house."

"I guess I should have been more specific," Lois said quietly. "Something that was always part of our relationship, our _physical_ relationship, is missing, Clark. There was always something when we had sex that made it more than just sex. There was a joy, an almost reverence in the way you treated me and my body, but now it's like you're doing a job, and not one you necessarily enjoy."

"Is this like when I was missing your signals, because I'm really trying to be better about that. Honestly, I just wasn't paying attention, and if I'm doing that again I'll try to be better about it, I promise."

"Clark, you don't look me in the eyes when we make love anymore. You always used to, and I thought it was weird how much you did it when we first got together, how you were always looking into my eyes. I got used to it, though, and came to understand that it was part of how you connected. Nobody in my life had ever tried to do that, tried to connect with me not only physically but mentally. It was like you were trying to see into my soul while everything was bared for you to see, while I was at my most vulnerable."

"I didn't..." Licking his lips, Clark had a difficult time finding the words to respond to what she had said. "I wasn't aware that was something I did. I never thought about how to make love with you, Lois. It always came naturally to me, mostly because I didn't have enough... experience, I guess, before falling in love with you to do anything _but_ what came naturally."

"I know, and I never had one complaint about our sex life, Smallville. From our first time together what came naturally to you naturally made me come," she said, and Clark looked over at her to find her wincing. "Sorry, that turn of phrase sounded better in my head."

Looking back at the road, Clark wished he had a response to what she was saying about their love life, something more than a question bouncing around in his head that was not something he wanted to ask. "Is it not... am I not _good_ anymore?"

"It's not that it's not good, Clark. I get pleasure out of our sex." Reaching over, she grabbed his hand again, much the way he had when he had pressed her to explain what she had been talking to Vicki's friend Sam about at the party. He hadn't even noticed that he had let go of her hand. "The problem is, Smallville, I'm not getting _you_, not the way I always have before. When we first started having sex again, the first couple times it happened I thought you were just out of sorts because I had gotten mad that we weren't having sex, that you weren't taking any hints, no matter how blatant. But that hasn't changed, and it hurts. I want to have every piece of you, Clark, the way I had before. I know it's selfish, that I'm demanding more of you than you might be able to give after your ordeal, but not having that part of you leaves me sad every time I notice that it's missing."

"God, I didn't... I wish you would have told me, Lois. I didn't even realize anything had changed. I feel like I'm doing things the same as I always have."

"I know, Clark. You would never do anything like this on purpose. And it's not just this. Other things have changed, too."

"I'm afraid to ask," Clark responded quietly, meaning it sincerely.

"Don't be, Clark. We can wait to talk about those things. They're smaller and to be worried about later. And remember: I love you, Smallville. I will always love you. If this is as much as you're capable of giving now, then I still have more than any other woman on the planet, and for that I am grateful."

"But I don't want you to have to settle, Lois. I don't want to give you any less than what I've always given you. If I am, and apparently I _really_ am, I'm not aware of it and that's a problem." Resting his elbow on his car door, Clark propped his head up with his hand. "I thought I came out of what happened relatively unscathed, but I guess not."

"Clark..."

"Have I ever told you how I got through all the pain, all the loneliness?" Lois shook her head and Clark sighed. He had hoped that he would be able to keep everything about his incarceration away from her, every detail hidden so that she would never have to know anything more than the fact that he was captured, held, dosed with kryptonite over and over again then released. Apparently that wasn't working to keep things as normal like he had hoped it would considering Lois was hurting and he was the one doing the hurting. He wished it was easier to talk about, that he didn't have to force every word out, but anything related to his capture felt like he had to yank it out of his body. Painfully. "I lost track of time a while in the bunker. They lined all the walls with lead underneath a sheen of kryptonite to keep me from being able to look through, except the ceiling. They left that lead free so I could see outside and watch the city move on without me, without Superman. The first time I lost track of how long I had been in there was when they..." Clark paused, the experience playing back in his mind. Men with chunks of kryptonite had come into his cell and were holding him down when a woman rolled in an oxygen tank. She had put the mask to his face, and as she did one of the men had kicked him in the ribs. When he had inhaled it was like his lungs had been lit on fire. They had liquified kryptonite, they explained, and had then boiled it and mixed a small amount of the gaseous kryptonite in with the oxygen in the tank, just to see what it would do to him. It had felt like forever before he could breathe again without pain. "Let's just say they got creative with how they would administer what they deemed justice for failed escape attempts. I was out of it for days, and the only way I found out how long it had been was by looking up through the bunker and catching a glimpse of something on the surface.

"After a little while, my mind decided I needed help, and it conjured something up to keep me strong, the one thing in my life that has always kept me strong." Looking over at Lois, he smiled, but she didn't smile back. She looked like she was about to cry, but he continued. He had to get through what he wanted to say, to try and make her understand. "One day you appeared before me while I was suffering through something they were doing to me, telling me to be strong. I knew I was hallucinating, knew that my mind was trying to help me get through what I was trying to endure. For days I wouldn't talk to the hallucination because I didn't want to be a cliché, didn't want to admit that I was hurting that much and that lonely. But my mind played to my love of you. She appeared naked, talking about how I was imagining your body. She started talking about the ways time and childbirth change a woman's body. She said that you probably thought my lasting mental picture of you was at the end of the week you took of maternity leave after Jacob was born, when you were barely sleeping and hadn't showered since getting home from the hospital. I couldn't help myself. I had to tell the hallucination, my own brain, that I could never see you as anything but beautiful." Looking back over his shoulder as he merged onto a larger highway, Clark got the car settled into traffic and turned on the cruise control before going back to his story.

"The hallucination became omnipresent. My Lois Lane stand in was always there, talking to me to keep my mind off the loneliness or try to distract me from the pain. She kept me as sane as somebody talking to a hallucination can be considered. Do you know when she disappeared?" Clark looked over at Lois, whose eyes were covered with a hand. "My hallucination disappeared when you opened the door and I saw you again, my glorious, beautiful Lois, now fully corporeal. You may not have been with me in body, Lois, but your spirit was there, and you kept me alive. The reason I survived to come home to you, Jacob, Cassidy and Devon was because you reminded me to be strong. Even when I had given up, when I was ready to die and felt like I had made peace with the idea of dying, she was there to remind me I had reasons to live." Clark paused, watching the road while only really half seeing it. "I wish you didn't have to hear any of this, Lois. I've done everything in my power to try and keep you from knowing anything about what happened during my capture and incarceration. But if I'm hurting you through my actions and inaction, if I've changed and I didn't even realize it, that means things aren't just bad, they're terrible. Hurting you through my inaction, through my lack of attention and demeanor means that I have to change what I'm doing. Immediately. We'll sit down and talk through what would be best and-"

"Sam said your symptoms sounded like post traumatic stress," Lois said suddenly, cutting him off. She sniffled loudly and started wiping at her now red and puffy eyes, and Clark had to resist the urge to scream at himself for making her cry. Once again his lack of attention to detail had hurt Lois. "She said that wasn't a diagnosis because she would have to talk to you to give you a definitive answer, but she thought you needed to talk to somebody about what's going on."

"Lois, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry. I thought sharing that would help you understand how much your love means to me..." Trailing off, Clark let his chin fall to his chest for a couple seconds before training his eyes back on the road. "I wish I could recognize when I'm hurting you, but I seem to have lost that ability."

"Some of these tears are sad tears, Smallville, but not all of them." She looked over at him, a tremulous smile gracing her face. "Some of these are tears from realizing just how much you love me. I never once questioned that you did, but hearing that you attribute your surviving to me, to the love you feel for me? God," she said, a small hiccup escaping her mouth as she started rubbing at her eyes again. "I don't think I'll ever be able to explain how much what you said means to me, Clark. It kills me to hear what happened to you, but if that's what it takes to get you through this I will listen to every second of everything you can remember. I will join you in therapy sessions and we'll talk about ways to try and help you cope with what happened. We will get through this together, because you're my Smallville, and that will never change."

* * *

><p>Scratching at her eyebrow, Sam walked up to the front desk of her office and grabbed the chart of her next patient, checking the name at the top so she could go pull her notes and review the previous session before calling the person back. <em>Kent, Clark<em>. Blinking, Sam made sure she had read that correctly before scanning the paperwork, noting that it was indeed the papers they had a new patient fill out before going into a first session, and he had checked 'traumatic event' on the forms where they asked why he had decided to seek counseling. But why had he come all the way to Gotham to see a psychologist? Just because she had been who Lois had talked to? Grinding her teeth together, Sam decided that she would at least talk to him in her office and see if that was why he had chosen to come to her rather than find a psychologist close to home. She surmised he probably thought it would be easier with somebody that had all ready heard a version of events as to what was occurring between he and Lois, along with his other potential symptoms. Walking out into the little waiting room, she held the chart behind her back. "Clark?"

He stood up quickly, knocking over a stack of magazines on the table next to him as he put one down on top of it. Smiling sheepishly, he picked them all up and put them back on the table and pushed his glasses up on his nose as he walked over to her, his hands going into his pockets as his shoulders slumped a little bit. "Hello, Dr. Parkes," he said quietly. "We never got to meet at Beth's party for Vicki and Jeff."

"No, we didn't, but I did get to meet your wife. Why don't you follow me back and we'll talk." He nodded, and as Sam turned to walk to her office she couldn't help but wonder how a woman like Lois Lane had ended up with a guy like the one she was seeing. He was handsome, yes, but he slumped, seemed shy, nerdy and klutzy. Maybe it was an office fling that had turned into more. Putting that out of her mind as they walked into the office, Sam sat down in her chair as Clark took a seat across from her, fidgeting as he did so.

"Sorry," he said, smiling as he noticed her watching him, that same smile he had out in the lobby when he had knocked over the magazines.

"You can imagine my surprise when I saw your name on the chart a few minutes ago. When I suggested to Lois that she have you see somebody about what happened to you I didn't mean that you needed to drive all the way to Gotham and see me. A psychologist in Stamford or New York could help you just as well with a tenth of the drive time."

"I know, but Lois talked about how you helped her feel better and gave her an idea of how to talk to me about things I wasn't even aware I was doing. When we talked about it, she suggested I try you. I work from home and Lois worked it out with her boss that she's able to take an afternoon off each week to work from home."

"Are you sure, Clark? I'd be happy to help you work on your issues if that's what you choose, but if it's going to be overly taxing on you and your family then you're doing as much harm as you are good."

He nodded, smiling. "Yeah, I'm sure. And if we have scheduling problems my mom is a former Senator from Kansas who does a lot of charity work. There's always an organization or event around New York that is happy to include her in the lineup and she can stay with us and help with the kids."

"Okay." Getting up, Sam walked to her desk and grabbed a pad of paper and pen before going back and sitting down, situating herself comfortably. "I'm going to tell you the same thing I tell all my patients. This is a safe place for you where you can share with me things that weigh on you with no risk of judgement. You're here because you recognize that there's a problem and that the problem is something you want to change. It's not going to be easy. It's not going to be you baring your soul, feeling better and walking out magically cured. This is a process, and not a short one unless you choose to make it short by discontinuing treatment. The one thing I will always ask of you is that you be honest. If you're not honest then we're wasting our time and your money."

"Honest," Clark said quietly, frowning. Noting his reaction, Sam couldn't help but frown as well.

"Is there a problem, Clark?"

"This is all covered by doctor/patient confidentiality, right?" he asked, looking up at her.

"As long as you don't confess to a major crime, yes."

Suddenly Clark sat up straight, his whole demeanor changing in the blink of an eye. The man who seemed shy and reserved was gone, and there was no sign of any lack of coordination that had been apparent only a moment ago. He inhaled slowly before reaching up and pulling off his glasses, hanging them off the front of his shirt. "If you require honesty for this process to work then there are some corrections I need to make to the story you heard. It was true, in a sense, but Lois was lying about the circumstances to protect me."

"Why would she need to do that?" she asked, suddenly realizing that Clark without his glasses looked _very_ familiar, but she couldn't place his face.

"Because what I'm about to tell is extremely privileged information. Do you use any recording devices during your sessions?"

"I do, but I haven't turned any on yet." Clark started looking around the room, as if he were scanning every inch with his eyes. "Are you looking for something?"

"Just making sure your office isn't bugged. I like to be thorough about these things."

"What? Why would you think somebody would have my office bugged?" This was probably the strangest first session with a patient that Sam could remember, and she had been through some weird ones over the years.

"You can never be too careful," she heard him mutter before he turned back to face her. He pulled his hands back through his hair, giving it an almost slicked back appearance. "I was captured, Dr. Parkes, but not in Africa. I was in India at the time, helping flood victims. Turns out it was a setup meant to get me away from Metropolis and trap me. It worked, and I was captured and then held in a bunker underneath Metropolis for almost ten months. The people that did this to me knew my weakness and used it against me, to... to torture me while they held me."

"What..." Pausing, Sam tried to process what she had just been told, but she was barely able to wrap her brain around his change in demeanor. His weakness? Why did he say that like he only had one, like there weren't a million things out in the world that could kill him? "Why would you specifically be targeted for capture, Clark?"

"I went by another name when they captured me: Superman."

As soon as he said the name, it slammed home in Sam's mind why he looked so familiar without the glasses. It was Superman. Clark Kent was Superman. She worked her mouth a couple times but found herself unable to form words. He hid in plain sight, and he did it perfectly. The way he had moved before deciding to be totally honest made him seem smaller than he was, his clumsiness selling his the persona of an uncoordinated nerd. The questions that had jumped to mind about why Lois Lane would marry Clark Kent were now gone. Very, very gone. "Why... why are you telling me who you are?" she finally asked, that being the first question to pop into her mind.

"Because Lois is unhappy, Dr. Parkes," Clark said, sitting forward and resting his elbows on his knees. "I know that sounds like the wrong reason for being here, like I want to change for her, but if she says something is wrong, that I've changed, then something _is_ wrong and I _have_ changed. I normally have a good sense of what I'm doing because of my gifts and the way I grew up. I had to. Now I'm doing things differently and Lois had to point that out to me. I'm hyper aware of all my actions and I missed this." Clark paused, but started again before Sam could even think about trying to collect her thoughts. "If what I'm doing is having an effect on her happiness, then I'm doing things incorrectly. If you need me to be completely and totally honest with you for this to work then I'm going to do just that, because nothing means more to me than my wife and children. If Lois has noticed a difference in me, how long will it be before my son notices, or my daughters? I don't want them to wonder what's wrong with their dad, ever. I all ready disappeared from their lives physically. I don't want there to be another interruption in their lives that I cause."

"You have _children_," Sam said, slumping in her chair a little bit. "I always wondered if it would be possible for Superman to have children with a human woman."

Clark glanced up at her from where he was looking, a curious look on his face before he sighed. "I forgot how much this news is to take. It's been a while since I told anybody." Clark stood up, putting his glasses back on. Sam felt like she couldn't unsee what she had seen, and now saw Superman in everything he did, every move he made. "What time does your last appointment today end, Dr. Parkes?"

"5:30pm. Why?"

"If you have some time after work and you'll agree to sit down with me then we can talk after you've had some time to process what I just told you. It's only been ten minutes since we came in here, which would give you the next fifty to think things through, plus any free time you have around appointments for the rest of the afternoon." Sam watched as Clark reached up and messed with his hair, making it look a little messy, some of it falling down into his eyes. She didn't remember Superman ever having hair that long. "If you don't want to take me on as a patient I would understand. I would just ask that should you make that choice you give me your word that you won't tell people my identity."

"No, of course not. Like I said, anything you tell me here is confidential." He nodded and moved towards the door, causing Sam to get up and walk over to him. As she reached him she noticed that he was slumping again, but now that she knew, it just struck her as odd that Superman would be slumping. "I'll free up some time this evening and let my husband know that I'll be home late. I wish we could have done this now but I just..." She shrugged, not knowing what else to say.

"I understand, and as you now probably understand, travel between Stamford and Gotham isn't as much of a problem as you thought it would be." He smiled and opened the office door. "Thank you, Dr. Parkes. I'll see you this evening."

As the door closed Sam stood there, trying to figure out what exactly had just happened. Moving across her office and sitting down behind her desk, she slumped back into her chair, letting her head rest against the back. "Please," she said quietly, "call me Sam. I like this to feel like a conversation, not an interview."


	26. Chapter 26

- Chapter 26

_Chloe smiled at her cousin. "Lois, I'm getting married to an amazing man in July and I'm working at my dream job. I'm freaking giddy about my life."_

"_Could you at least be visibly giddy? I can never tell."_

"_Sullivan! My office, pronto!"_

_Chloe looked over at Perry, who was already retreating back into his office, before looking back to Lois. "Everybody wants a piece of me today." She slowly and gently transferred the now sleeping infant to his mother and looked over at Clark. "You've been oddly silent. Anything to add before I go?"_

"_Like my wife, I just want to see you happy. If you're happy now, so am I."_

"_Isn't a husband supposed to side with his wife, Smallville?"_

"_I do agree with you because I want her to have what we have. The difference is that I trust Chloe to achieve what she wants and be as happy as we are and have what we have, assuming that is how she chooses to be happy. We aren't all happy the same way, and seven years ago you'd have laughed in my face had I told you we'd be married and living in the suburbs with a five month old son."_

_Chloe smiled and patted Lois on the shoulder as she walked. "Have a good argument, you two." Weaving her way through the bullpen traffic, Chloe got to Perry's office and knocked on the door before walking inside. "What's up, Perry?"_

"_Sit." Chloe slid into a chair, the smile wiped off her face as she noted just how much tension there was in his face. It hadn't been so bad since Lois had come back to work after Jacob had been born. Crossing her legs, she put her hands in her lap and waited patiently for him to speak. "Lex Luthor is claiming that your exposé on his science division is a fabrication and is threatening to sue the Planet unless we print a retraction and fire you."_

_Chloe sat forward, eyes wide. "What? I showed you all my information and the legal department said everything looked fine. I say let them do their job and handle this, make Lex look foolish and maybe send him to jail for what he did."_

"_The board folded, Chloe."_

"_What? What do you mean they folded?"_

"_They're not going to try fighting Luthor on this. The retraction is being printed on the front page of tomorrow's morning edition and... and they're firing you, effective immediately."_

_Chloe stared at Perry, mouth agape. She felt like somebody twice her size had punched her in the stomach and had taken to squeezing her lungs, just to make a point. After a moment she felt like she could breathe again and spoke. "They fired me? I did everything by the book, double checked every fact. I know my sources were anonymous, but there's nothing wrong with the article!"_

"_I'm sorry, Chloe. I've been fighting with every member about this since they told me this morning. They know the readers love your work but they don't care and they won't budge. They're more interested in blowing billionaires than telling the truth."_

_Chloe stood up, swallowing the bile that was rising in her throat. "It's, uh..." She cleared her throat, giving speech another try. "It's not your fault, Perry. You did what you could, and I appreciate that you fought for me so hard. I, uh..." With nothing else to say Chloe walked out of his office, feeling like she was in a nightmare. The world around her didn't feel real. Everything seemed to be kind of hazy, and while she heard people speaking, she couldn't seem to understand anything being said. It was like the world had taken to speaking gibberish as a universal language in the minutes she'd been in Perry's office._

"_What happened, Chloe?"_

_Looking up, Chloe found herself looking at Lois and Clark, who was rocking the baby carrier that held Jacob. She hadn't even realized that she'd been walking anywhere. "Fired," she mumbled._

"_What? You're mumbling."_

"_I got fired." Hands closed in tight fists, Chloe told herself that she wouldn't cry. "Lex claims my exposé is false, threatened legal action and the board decided it would be a whole lot less painful to fire me and print a retraction than fight for the truth." Chloe looked up to find two shocked faces staring at her._

"_You're... fired?" Lois asked._

"_Seems that way." Chloe blinked back tears and started towards her desk. A hand took her gently by the arm and she was pulled into an involuntary hug by her cousin. Letting a few tears out would have been extremely satisfying right about then, but if she started she wasn't going to stop. That wasn't something she wanted to be doing in public. She extracted herself from the hug. "Look, I'm going to go. I... I don't really need to be here anymore." With a trembling sigh, Chloe grabbed her purse out of her desk, shot a weak smile at Lois and Clark and walked off to the elevator, getting in before the doors could close. The ride down was deafening after the din of the bullpen, and she almost jumped when the bell dinged, indicating the lobby just outside the opening doors. Bustling out with the few other people in the elevator, she walked through the lobby and out onto the sidewalk. For once, she got a cab after only about thirty seconds of waving them down, and made small talk with the cab driver during the fifteen minute ride, though she was barely aware of what she was saying, only that she was somehow holding herself together. After paying him and heading into her building, Chloe walked up to her floor and made her way into her apartment. Dropping her bag on the couch as she sat down, she couldn't fight the tears anymore and collapsed into a sobbing heap._

Her eyes popping open, Vicki blinked and pulled some hair out of her face before sitting up and wiping some tears out of her eyes. That was one of the most vivid dreams she had ever had, easily. Rubbing at the corners of her eyes in hopes they would stop watering, she looked at the clock on the nightstand, wondering how long she had before she had to get up and start getting ready for work, but then realized it was about to be Saturday, not a work day. Laying back down, Vicki snuggled up next to Jeff, who was all ready facing her. Gently taking his arm, she wrapped it around her body and felt him pull her closer as she was covering them both with the sheet. "You two doing okay?" he mumbled into her neck as he situated himself behind her.

Reveling in the comfort and peace she felt in his arms, Vicki wrapped her hand around his, moving it down so that it was resting on top of the bump she now, after another two weeks of growth, would readily admit was their baby and not a part of her body exercise didn't seem to affect. "Yeah, just a weird dream. Go back to sleep." Closing her eyes and taking a long, deep breath that she released slowly to try and relax, Vicki put the dream out of her mind, only a question remaining as she drifted back to sleep.

Why would she have a dream where she was Lois Lane's cousin?

* * *

><p>Covering a yawn with the back of her hand, Vicki blinked a couple times and shook her head as she rode in the passenger seat while Jeff stopped the car at the site where their new house was being built. After talking it through, they had decided to rebuild somewhere else, Jeff selling the property so that somebody else could build a house and perhaps start a life with somebody there. Not far from where Beth, Chuck and their girls lived a new subdivision was being built, half of it where one could buy lots and design his own house, the other half where people could buy one of the pre-designed houses that would be going up. They had chosen to buy two of the lots, which were not inexpensive, and now their new house, designed by an architect specifically for them, was being built. Whenever they were going to Beth's house they would stop and look at the spot where their house would be for a few minutes. "You remembered the drawings, right? I'd rather not have to put this off again. We should have told her that we were going to build a house ten minutes from her and her family months ago." Vicki sat up straight and started drawing little circles on her stomach to remind herself not to unintentionally start napping when they were about to go to Beth's for a late lunch, though they would probably end up staying for dinner, too. That seemed to be how things worked in the family she was now part of, but she kind of liked it. Definitely not the way her family had worked growing up.<p>

"I have the set of drawings in the trunk," Jeff said, smiling at her for a second before turning to look out the window. The foundation had been laid and a lot of wood had gone up, but it would still be at least three to four months before the house was finished, and Vicki doubted it would be ready by the time the baby was born. "And yes, I probably should have told her all ready but I wanted things to be in progress, to be well on their way and not just getting started. If we had told her when we bought the lots, the anticipation she would have worked up by now would be enormous."

"Yeah, well, when you tell her how long we've been working on this without her knowledge, I'm directing all blame right at you."

Jeff put the car into drive and pulled away from the side of the half finished street, turning around and heading back towards Beth's house. "You're pregnant with her niece or nephew. I'm almost certain that you can do no wrong in her eyes. The only thing that would get you marked down would be trying to kill me, and we both know that you all ready skipped out on the opportunity after we were attacked in your apartment."

"There's a good memory," Vicki muttered.

"I don't remember any of the bad stuff. All I know is that one minute we're agreeing to be exclusive and the next I'm waking up in a hospital bed with you watching over me. Not one to believe in signs, but were I to believe in such nonsense I would say that was a pretty big sign." He grinned at her as they pulled up to a stop sign. "Haven't let you out of my sight since and nothing but good things keep happening."

"One could say that getting stabbed in my apartment was a sign," Vicki said as Jeff started driving again. "Nearly dying mere seconds after getting into a full blown relationship with somebody is not how most healthy couples start out. In fact, most couples I know try to avoid the dying part for at least a few years after getting together."

"All I know is this: all the relationships during which I have not been stabbed have ended. All the relationships during which I have been stabbed have led to marriage and a pregnant wife." Vicki had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. Every time he mentioned that she was pregnant there was a hint of pride in the statement, like he had done some immensely difficult task. It had taken seven attempts, but still, not THAT much work involved. Taking his hands off the wheel, Jeff mimicked weighing the two things he knew on a scale. "I don't know about you but the relationship where I've been stabbed is clearly the winner. Having a pregnant wife outweighs everything else combined."

"Hey!" Vicki said, looking over at him to glare.

"Sorry, sorry," he said, motioning with his hand as he pulled up to the curb in front of Beth's house. "I really should have thought that sentence through before saying it. I will apologize with chocolates, flowers and other clichés as soon as possible."

"I expect at least three clichés, but no more than seven." Getting out of the car, she used her thumb to work out a kink in her back as they walked up to the house, Jeff knocking on the door a couple times before leaning in to kiss her, doing so in a very pleasurable manner that made Vicki wish they would have a little more time before anybody answered the door. That was also when she remembered that they had left the drawings in the trunk. "Keys," she said, pulling away from him.

"What?"

"Your keys. I'm going to go get the drawings out of the trunk. I'd rather spring the surprise now and let it have time to be digested before we eat."

"You stay; I'll go. My sister would kill me if I allowed you to go get something out of the car. She's been giving me little lectures about how to be extra nice and treat you extra special whenever you aren't around. You'd think she was under the impression I hadn't been around all my female friends, plus her, when they were pregnant. Most of them twice and some more than that."

Watching him jog back to the car, Vicki turned back and was greeted by the sound of the door opening, followed by Jenny and Liv running up and stopping just short of her. The last time they had been here and seen the girls they had run up and hugged her. She was a little surprised until Beth came up behind them, saying, "Thank you for not tackling Vicki, girls." That apparently being their cue, they closed what little distance remained and hugged her, each taking a turn feeling her stomach as she stepped inside. Each having her curiosity sated for the moment, they ran off, Vicki losing sight of them as they rounded a corner. "Sorry about the stomach groping, but now whenever I tell them you and Jeff are coming they get wide eyed and start asking about you having a baby and talking about how they want a baby brother."

"They want a little brother? They must think all brothers and sisters are as close as you are to Jeff." Following Beth into the kitchen, Vicki sat down at the dinner table while Beth grabbed a couple bottles of water out of the fridge, sliding one across to Vicki as she sat down. "And for them, I believe I can allow unlimited stomach access. They're great girls."

"Thank you, and thank you. I still wish I could figure out how they equated you having a baby to mean that I should have one, too, and they don't seem to want to understand that Mommy is all done having babies. That might be a concept a little over their heads, though." Beth stopped to take a drink of her water before asking, "Where's Jeff? He fall asleep in the car or something?"

"Jeff is right here," he called out, Vicki looking back over her shoulder to see him enter the kitchen with the drawings for their house in hand.

"What are those?" Beth asked, getting up as Jeff put the drawings down on the table and started pulling the rubber bangs off that were keeping them rolled up.

"These, dear sister," Jeff said in an overly dramatic way, "are drawings. What drawings, you ask? Why, they just happen to be the drawings for the house Vicki and I are having built!" As he finished his sentence Jeff rolled the drawings open, a picture of what the their house was going to look like from multiple angles being revealed.

"_What_?" Beth exclaimed, walking around to the side of the table Vicki was on to see the drawings right-side up. Vicki got up and slid her chair out of the way so Beth could get right in the middle of the drawings and not be looking from an angle. "You guys have all ready had a house designed? I thought you were just taking you time looking at houses around Gotham to find the perfect one!"

"On the contrary!" Jeff exclaimed, pulling open the drawings to display the layout of the first floor before stepping out of the way. "We've been working with an architect to design a house that has all the things we want, and then some. The basement will be an added floor, much like yours is, with two bedrooms, full bathroom and large living room area. There will also be a third floor walk-up that will have its own bathroom. Go ahead and look through the drawings and have a look at what we came up with."

"This place looks huge," Beth commented as she turned the page to the layout of the second floor. "How many square feet is it?"

"4,780, so it is definitely big," Vicki said. "I have no idea what we're going to do with five regular bedrooms, let alone the two in the basement and the walk-up. We'll only use the one and the baby will use one. Jeff says he has an idea of what to do with them, but whenever he does he starts eyeing my stomach, which I think is the definition of thinking a little too far ahead." Crossing her arms, she watched Beth for a moment before noticing Chuck walk into the kitchen out of the corner of her eye. "Hey," she said, smiling at him. "We just revealed the plans for the house we're building to your wife. Want to take a look?"

"Why yes, I believe I do," he said, and Vicki stepped out of the way, moving over next to Jeff so Chuck could join Beth in poring over the drawings. "Wow, this is going to be a hell of a house. Five bedrooms, a family room, a living room, a solarium, a huge kitchen, a playroom, giant basement and a third floor walk-up? This must be costing you a not-so-small fortune. Where are you guys building?"

"That's the news that at least one of you is really going to like. Chuck, I'm sorry but Vicki and I may actually be in your life more often once the house is built and we're moved in, if such a thing is possible. That, or Beth is going to be over there fawning over the baby," Jeff said with a shrug. "Our lots are in that new subdivision just north of here, which is, at most, a ten minute drive from this very house. And, we actually waited to tell you about this. The house is all ready being built." As Chuck and Beth looked up from the drawings, Jeff grinned at Vicki before looking back to the others. "Surprise."

"It's all ready being built?" Beth asked. "How much is done?"

"From what we've been told it's supposed to be ready around the beginning of October, which I am sure you remember is basically the same time as Vicki's due date. We're not actually expecting to be in the house before the baby is born, but we do have a realistic hope to be moved in by the end of the year."

"October 10th, right Vicki?" Beth asked, and she nodded.

"October 10th. Should the house be ready on time and I have the baby within a week of my due date on either side that could turn out to be an extremely busy couple of weeks. Even if the house isn't ready I expect it to get pretty hectic. If I haven't lost my mind waiting to not be pregnant anymore, and based on first hand accounts I've listened to I'll certainly be close to it, adding moving to that can only do bad things to the mind of a pregnant woman, or a new mother should I have given birth all ready." That was still a strange thought to Vicki, that she was going to give birth. She would probably get used to being pregnant about a month before she had to come to grips with the idea that a person was going to expelled from her body. Painfully. She put those thoughts aside as she continued with what she was saying. "But like Jeff said, we're not expecting it to be done on time. If we're in the house by the end of the year, we're counting it as a success, and in the house or not we'll have a baby." Shaking her head, Vicki couldn't help but smile to herself, resting her hand on her stomach as she did so. Never would she have thought she could be so happy about something but it seemed like every time she thought about the baby, _her_ baby that she was having with Jeff, she felt a little happier.

"We're having a baby?" Jeff asked, looking around like this was news. "I wish you would have told me. I thought you were gaining weight in oddly specific areas of your body because you're not going so hardcore on the workouts anymore. Have to say, a little bit relieved that I just got you pregnant and didn't get you lazy." Rolling the inside of her lip between her teeth in an attempt not to smile, Vicki didn't want to encourage further irreverent behavior like that no matter how much she liked that he was totally irreverent and not treating her any differently now that she was pregnant, at least not verbally. He'd gotten gentler in the physical aspects of their lives, but she could live with that if that was what made him comfortable. All she needed to feel comfortable was him, but he did more than that. He made her feel good about herself and her life. He was an addition she hadn't known could make her life better, but now that she knew and they were also adding a baby she thought she finally understood why his friends had worried about him. If they had all found this in their significant others she could understand why they would want the last remaining single member of the group to find it as well. "Vicki?" Looking up when she heard her name, she found Jeff looking at her, confused. Beth was back looking at the drawings and Chuck had disappeared, apparently walking away while she had been lost in thought. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said, smiling and bumping him with her shoulder. "Got lost in my thoughts for a moment."

"Good things, I hope."

"As it turns out, yes. I was thinking about how falling in love and having a baby with you has turned my all ready very good life into a great one. And I also think I figured out why your sister and your friends wanted this for you."

"If what you're about to tell me doesn't involve society pressuring people to conform to social norms then it's an incomplete theory," Jeff said, raising an eyebrow as he glanced back towards beth at the sound of her turning the page of the drawings. "I'm not convinced that's not the whole reason, Beth's insistences otherwise be damned."

"Vicki's a brilliant woman, Jeff, so listen to her because she's probably right." Beth looked up from the drawings for a second, frowning. "Unless I end up sounding crazy. Then she's probably only half right and holy crap is that the time?" she asked as she looked up at a clock on the wall. "I totally forgot about making lunch! You guys talk and I'll make us some sandwiches." She paused, pointing at Vicki. "Don't tell me, I think I have it perfect now. Turkey and cheese on toast, the cheese melted, with a lettuce leaf under each slice of bread."

"Perfect," Vicki said nodding. "I'd be happy to make it myself because I know it's more work to throw together than the usual sandwich."

"Yeah, because I've ever let you make your own sandwich here before," Beth said in response, grinning and shaking her head. She walked over to Vicki, stopping in front of her. "May I?" she asked, and Vicki nodded, knowing what she was asking. Beth leaned over, laying her hands on Vicki's stomach before placing a kiss between them. "Love you, kid, almost as much as your parents do." Standing up straight, Beth smiled before walking away to make their sandwiches, leaving Vicki with Jeff, who she noticed was still watching his sister.

"I still think it's weird that she likes to do that," he said as they both sat down at the table, Jeff closing the drawings and rolling them up. "Though it's a lot less weird now that you have popped. Her kissing your mostly flat stomach when we were about to leave the anniversary party she threw for us was flat out strange, though I don't think I'll ever find my sister kissing my wife's stomach normal."

"I think it's sweet that she likes to tell the baby how much she loves it. It's not like we haven't both been doing that. And before you go say something like we're the parents and we're supposed to be doing it, she's excited that she is finally going to be an aunt and all ready loves our baby. There is no bad in that, or weirdness. See what trying to argue otherwise gets you." After giving him a second to make sure he wasn't going to try and argue, Vicki moved on. "Now, my point about your friends is this: think about how you feel. I don't know about you, but this is the happiest I've ever been, and before I met you I was all ready at a place in my life where I thought I couldn't get much happier. I was doing the best work of my life at one of the best papers in the country, a dream of mine since I was a kid. Now imagine that your whole group of friends feels all the same happiness we do while watching one member of the group not have the same thing. I can see how they would worry that you were missing out on something. So yes, there is an element of pressure enforcing societal norms, but it's also your friends feeling like this, feeling this happy, and wanting a friend to feel the same way."

"So basically, what you're saying is that happiness loves company, much the same as misery?"

After thinking about it for a second, Vicki said, "I guess it could be interpreted that way. I was going more for the explanation that while all of us as individuals have specific things that make us happy, such as being a journalist or practicing law, as a whole we tend to be similar in the broad concepts that make us happy, such as finding somebody that loves us for who we are and starting a family with that person."

"I think I'm going to chose to interpret it a different way." Stepping closer, Jeff wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close until she was resting her body against his. "People are hard wired for sex, and as a result of hormones, evolution and whatever else, became hard wired for love. People in love don't understand how those around them could choose to live without love because their brains are soaked in happiness hormones. Basically, people are drugged by love and they become pushers once they've become dependent on it because of long-term monogamy."

"That's not cynical at all," Vicki mumbled against his chest. Closing her eyes, she inhaled and couldn't help relaxing into his arms. It was too good to fight against.

"I prefer calling it a scientific view of love and why perfectly rational people become pushers of love, and I think the same thing applies when it comes to babies and wanting other people to also have babies. Thus, my sister and group of friends aren't nuts, but simply high on love and children." He paused. "And they also like to enforce societal norms because if you're not married and raising children, you're obviously doing something wrong."

"You're not going to let that go, are you?"

"It's true and you know it." Vicki rolled her eyes as she leaned back, looking up at him. This was getting to be ridiculous, but he kept going. "Don't deny that life is one long message telling us the way to achieve happiness is to work, have sex and raise children, and that if you choose to go about life a different way you're not doing it right."

"You know what? You're right. I don't know _what_ I was thinking," she said, getting up on her toes to kiss him and hopefully get him to think about something else. Not the best reason to kiss him, but she was going to use whatever tools were available to her, and kissing was the best weapon she had when they were at Beth's house.

"You had obviously forgotten that how great I am." After another kiss Jeff released her, allowing Vicki to take a step back and stretch her arms out behind her body. "On that note I'm going to go find Jenny and Liv, as I've been in the house for fifteen minutes and have yet to be tackled, chased or even hugged. I wasn't aware that could happen when I entered this house and they were both home."

"_I_ got hugs as soon as I came inside."

"Yeah, that seems to be a common trend with women in my family. Going to have to look into that."

Vicki smiled as they walked to the stairs so Jeff could go up and find the girls. "Here's a clue: they've been telling Beth that they want a little brother. Since she doesn't plan on attempting to oblige their request, I'll be interesting for a while but I'm pretty sure the novelty of Vicki wears off as soon as they have a baby to hold instead of a tummy to hug. Of course, should we have a boy then at least we might be able to take the heat off Beth, close as we'll be living to her. He could be their surrogate little brother."

"You think it will be a he?"

"I'd say the chance are about 50/50," she responded, shaking her head. "Go get your hugs and play time. I'll stay down here with Beth so they don't get distracted by the incredible expanding stomach." Watching him go up the stairs, Vicki turned and walked back to the kitchen, joining Beth as she was finishing her sandwich. Thanking her as she took it, Vicki sat down at the table and waited for Beth to join her before digging in. It didn't take her long to finish the sandwich, or any other food, when she was hungry now. Before she had always been a slow eater, keeping her food simple but liking to take her time eating so she didn't overeat. She was having a much more difficult time controlling the speed at which she was eating now, which she hoped was not a quirk specific to her.

"I figured you might want another one so I left one in the microwave with the bread all ready toasted. Lettuce is in the bottom shelf of the refrigerator."

"Thanks," Vicki said quietly, getting up and taking her plate with her. Punching ten seconds into the microwave, she started that before getting the lettuce out. Breaking off a couple leaves, she put them on her plate before pulling out the now warmed sandwich, putting a leaf under each slice of bread before walking back to the table. She took a bite and washed it down with some water before she spoke. "Normal before I got pregnant was eating three smallish meals a day, any snacking between those meals consisting of fruits or vegetables. Now I not only eat more often but it also feels like the hunger between meals is ten times stronger. I got something out of the snack machine every day this week at work and am pretty sure I went through a week of groceries in three days. The only thing I can say I'm proud of is that, aside from snack machine trips, I kept it all healthy."

"That does sound like something to be proud of. If you can keep that up you'll probably get to be one of the few women who stays within the gaining 25 to 35 pounds range that doctors recommend." Beth stopped and wiped her mouth with her napkin, Vicki taking the opportunity to take another large bite of her sandwich. "I don't know if it was harder to stick to nutritional foods the first or the second time I was pregnant. With Jenny I was just trying to savor the whole experience and for a while I ate whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, but that was mostly when I was in my third trimester, enduring the absurdities of the last three months of pregnancy. Ended up gaining 38lbs in that pregnancy. With Liv I was better prepared to keep my eating habits in control but I had a toddler to take care of, which made things difficult. I was tired from chasing her all day and as things wore on I got more and more exhausted from being pregnant so I kept taking the easy ways out with dinners, like fast food or pizza, and that resulted in a gain of 41lbs. Don't worry, Vicki, because everybody struggles with it."

"Kind of a relief. Would have hated to be afflicted with extra strong extra hunger. And speaking of the absurdities of pregnancy," she said, setting down what little bit of her sandwich remained, "here's a question. Are my boobs ever going to stop growing while I'm pregnant, or are they just going to jut out as far as my stomach by the end?"

Beth frowned as she leaned against the table, making a face before she sighed. "I wish I had an answer for you, but it really is different for every woman. When I was pregnant I would get a big growth surge early, have little to no growth for a while, then get another surge near the end. Sam, if I recall, had pretty steady growth throughout, never really getting a time where they weren't getting bigger. Beyond her and myself you would have to ask the others in the group, and I'm sure they would be happy to share. Has it been bad for you?"

"Bad?" Vicki said, swallowing her last bite of sandwich. "No, just strange. I hit sixteen weeks yesterday and pretty much from day one of this pregnancy it has been an explosion. That's why I got into the topic using your 'absurdities of pregnancy' line. I was hoping that they were going to slow down at some point because I've gone up two cup sizes and am on my way to going up a third with no sign of a slow down. At least my nipples are starting to become less sensitive." Realizing what they were talking about, Vicki grimaced and looked around to make sure neither of the girls had snuck up on them, and hoped that Chuck was out of hearing distance. "Thank you, by the way. It's nice to have somebody to talk to about pregnancy stuff since I don't have any family or close friends of my own to talk to."

"You have family, Vicki," Beth said with a smile, reaching over and taking Vicki's hand into her own. "You're a Powers now and for life, so you'll always have me, and with me comes Sam, no questions asked. It's been over a year now since the day we met and you and Jeff got married, and on that day I told you that I hoped you were in his and my life for a long, long time. As far as I'm concerned you're my sister, and with that comes the responsibility to talk to me any time you feel you need to. Any questions you have, come to me with them. If I don't have the answer then there are numerous other women that I can refer you to, depending on the topic."

"I'm your sister?" Vicki asked, smiling and finding herself with a sudden onset of tears in her eyes. "Wow. That's an amazing thing to say to an in-law."

"You're a damn good in-law, Vicki, a better wife to Jeff and will be an amazing mother."

Trying to control herself, Vicki smiled through her tears, taking a couple long, deep breaths to try and compose herself. "Thank you. I've heard Jeff tell me that, but there's always that voice in the back of my mind, the niggling self doubt that I'm going to mess up my son or daughter more than normal parents mess up their children."

"Here," Beth said, handing her a napkin that Vicki used to dab at her eyes. "You'll be amazing, trust me. You've got lots of women around you to help figure anything out that's giving you trouble, but I don't think you'll need us. I've got a good eye for talent and I see a good mom hiding beneath that tough exterior. You wouldn't be such a good mentor to that girl Ashley at work if you didn't have it in you. I started reading her articles the first time you mentioned her to me, and with every article she gets better. I can see your work in her, too, because you have a specific style and she mimics it, but doesn't do as well as the original."

"You're making it really hard to stay humble," Vicki joked, finally feeling like she had reeled in her emotions. That was not something she thought she would ever get used to having to do.

"Let other people be humble. People in the Powers family are awesome and the world should know that." Beth sat back in her chair, hands still resting on the table, staring at her before she quirked a little smile. "So, how are you really doing? No bullshit, sister to sister. How are you handling the fact that you're going to be a mom?"

"No bullshit?" It took Vicki a moment to come up with the right word for what she was experiencing, her vocabulary not seeming to have what she was looking for in it until she stumbled onto the right word. "I'm flabbergasted. Why flabbergasted? Because saying I'm overwhelmed makes it sound like there's something bad going on, and there isn't. There's all this information I should know yesterday about pregnancy and babies and all the things a baby needs, but at the same time I almost feel calm, like I know that this is something I can handle. I don't know why I feel that way because I know nothing about babies and am spending all the time I should be reading pregnancy books and baby books doing an investigation on organized crime in Gotham! Even with that kind of chaotic lifestyle, with the glut of information I receive and have to try and process each day, there's a peace in my life when I'm with Jeff that I've never had before. Just the two of us laying down together... there's so much love in a simple embrace, so much emotion I feel when we're curled up together in bed. And then he'll be move his hand down and rest it on my stomach, or I'll do it for him, and somehow it makes it better. I told Jeff earlier that my life before he came along was everything I wanted it to be, and now I have all these things I didn't think I would ever have, that I didn't care about having, and it has all made me even happier, taken me to places of joy I didn't know I could go."

Leaning forward, Vicki rested her forearms on the edge of the table, smiling at Beth. "My body is doing God-knows-what at any given moment. I've got boobs twice as big as I'm used to, a protruding stomach that was flat a month ago and I'm pretty sure my hips and butt are joining in on the growing fun. But despite any complaints I have, I'm loving being pregnant. It's the strangest thing, but I've never felt more feminine in my life. I love how close Jeff and I are right now, somehow closer than we were before. I love how it has helped me get even closer to you. There is nothing but good coming from this pregnancy, and every time I use that logic it makes me look forward to becoming a mom. I can't wait for every smile and moment that makes pregnancy, labor and sleepless nights worth it." Vicki smiled a little wider as she nodded to herself, dropping her eyes to the table for a moment as she realized what she was about to verbalize. "I accused Jeff of putting the cart before the horse earlier, talking about him glancing at my stomach when I asked him how we would fill all the rooms in the new house. But you know what? Even when I'm peeing three times an hour and I'm the most uncomfortable I've ever been, I'll know how good life can be. This happiness, the contentment I feel in my life and in our relationship is something I will never forget. So in a couple years, when I'm pushing forty and chasing around a son or daughter who is almost two, when I'm complaining that a second baby would be mistaken for my grandchild at least once before the age of ten, Jeff will be able to talk me into it, as long as he reminds me of times like this, of how good life is, and how despite no longer being in total control of my life I've never been happier."


	27. Chapter 27

- Chapter 27

Sliding her laptop into it's carrying case, Lois zipped it shut and got it slung over her shoulder when her cell phone started ringing in her purse, which she had been about to grab off her desk. Sighing, she put her laptop case back down and grabbed her phone, sticking it to her ear after glancing at the number on the screen. Why Bruce would be calling her on a Thursday evening she had no idea. "I'm trying to go home, Bruce. It has been such a long day that I'm looking forward to two of my children testing my patience and the third being loud because she wants me to hold her at all times, not to mention try to talk to me just like her brother and sister. Believe it or not, tested patience and a needy one year old will actually be improvements upon the day I've had."

"What would you say if I asked you to put off your evening with your children in favor of coming to Gotham to meet with me?"

Grunting, Lois hefted her laptop bag back onto her shoulder and grabbed her purse before exiting her office, talking as she walked to the elevator. "I would say that you've finally lost your mind if you think I'm going to make a long day longer by driving to Gotham tonight and then driving back, or maybe driving back in the morning." Pushing the down button at the elevators, the door dinged and opened, Lois thankful that she had finally caught a break. "Seriously, Bruce, what made you think I would drive to Gotham City tonight?"

"What if you didn't have to drive?"

"Bruce, is this really so important that we can't talk about it over the phone, or that I need to come to Gotham tonight? If I'm lucky Clark and I can get the kids to sleep without much fuss, I can have a glass of wine and fall asleep really, really quickly." Exiting the elevator as the doors opened on the ground floor, Lois walked out, making her way to the front of the building. "Unless you're going to offer me lots of money to do those things as a job, I'm going to go home and we can talk tomorrow."

"I'm buying _Weekly_ from Perry White."

Lois stopped dead in her tracks, staring straight ahead in shock. "What... how... how the hell did you get Perry to sell? _Weekly_ is his baby!"

"For that and any related information you're going to have to come to Gotham so we can talk in person. This is the kind of conversation we have where you don't want to be talking to me over the phone."

Closing her eyes, Lois used her free hand to rub at the corners, trying to figure out how she could get the information out of him without having to do any traveling besides to her house. Unable to think of anything, she resumed walking towards the exit, saying, "Fine, Bruce, you win. Where do I need to go so I can be whisked to Gotham for the evening?"

"Assuming you're still in the _Times_ building, go outside. Alfred should be waiting for you with a car to drive you to the airstrip."

Sure enough, as she walked out of the building Lois found Alfred waiting for her, his usual pleasant smile as he folded his hands behind his back. "Really? You had Alfred here on the off chance that I said yes to going to see you tonight?"

"I've known you for more than five minutes, Lois. It wasn't difficult to figure out which buttons to push to make sure you came to see me. I'll talk to you when you get here."

Frowning at her phone, Lois kept it in her hand as she walked out of the building and allowed herself to turn the frown into a smile as she approached Alfred, who pulled the door of the car open for her. "Always good to see you, Alfred. How are you this evening?" she asked as she tossed her purse in and pulled her laptop bag off her shoulder.

"I'm well, Mrs. Kent, and glad that Master Bruce was able to convince you to see him this evening. How are your children?"

"More and more like me every day. I believe they're what comes around if I was what goes around when I was their ages." She shrugged before sliding into the car, placing her laptop bag next to her purse and buckling her seatbelt before scrolling through her phone until she found Clark's cell, tapping the screen to start it dialing. Putting the phone to her ear, she heard him answer.

"Hey, Lo. You have to work late tonight?"

"No, but I'm not going to be home for a while anyway. Bruce wants to meet with me and got me curious as to why." Looking out the window as the car pulled out into traffic, Lois switched her phone to her other ear so she could look outside more easily. "I was saying no until he told me that he's buying _Weekly_ from Perry. Needless to say that piqued my curiosity, and you know how bad I am at ignoring things when I'm curious."

"Wow. I can't believe Perry is selling when it's only been going for a year. Did Bruce say what his plans are for it?"

"No, but I assume I'll be hearing something about it when I meet with him." Rubbing at her temple, Lois started digging through her purse, hoping that she still had some painkillers in there somewhere that she could take for the headache she could feel coming on. "I'm sorry to bail on you and the kids like this. Are they at least being their usual less-than-angelic selves tonight so I can feel like not being there is actually working in my favor?"

"Sorry. Nothing but good news about them tonight. Jacob has been doing his reading for school after he finished his writing practice and Cassidy has been all sunshine and daffodils. Devon has been working on her speaking all day, but I like listening to her."

Grumbling, Lois finally found a bottle of ibuprofen and got it popped open with the one hand. "Hold on a second, Smallville," she muttered, setting the phone down and popping a couple of the pills into her mouth, dry swallowing them quickly. Putting the lid back on the bottle, she dumped it back into her purse as she picked the phone back up. "I love listening to my baby try to talk but she is much more nonstop about it than either Jacob or Cass were. She's not quite thirteen months old and is all ready a talker and walking on her own, and I imagine she'll be running before we know it. I think we need to face the facts that we've got two little Kents and one little Lane."

"Why do you say that like it's a bad thing?"

"You know two women who used to be little Lanes. Remember all those stories of when I was young? Or about the craziness Lucy got into?"

"When you put it that way," she heard him say quietly. "Still," he continued, "I think you and Lucy are special cases. You two are combinations of the forceful personality of your father and the rebellious qualities of you mother. Our children are combinations of your type-A personality and my self control. It's a perfect combination."

"Yes, there is that potential combination of our genes, Smallville, but let's not forget that you had your youthful indiscretions as well. You had a serious problem with authority when it was a disembodied voice telling you things you didn't want to hear. So how about your problems with authority and added special gifts combined with my rebellious nature to do exactly what I shouldn't have to stick it to my dad, such as smoking?" Thinking about what she had just said, Lois went wide eyed. "Dear God, Smallville. Why did we have children when that was a possibility?"

"I have no idea. Really wish you would have brought this potential catastrophic combination of genes to my attention when you asked me if I thought we should have children. Then again, I wouldn't trade those three for anything. We're just going to have to keep a closer eye on them when they're older."

"Older? I'm worried about them now, especially Devon. That girl is a Lane through and through, no matter how many of your crazy dominant genes overpowered mine." Running her hand over her face, Lois looked out the window again as the car turned and she found that they were out of the city and coming to a private airstrip, the car driving straight towards a small jet sitting near a hangar. "Look, we're driving up to the plane that is going to take me to Gotham so I can talk to Bruce and have something to worry about other than how crazy our children could be. Tell them I love them, and I love you too, Smallville."

"Love you, Lo. Try not to let him get you too riled up."

"I can't promise anything. It's been a long day and he might deserve it."

"He always deserves it. I just prefer not to have you come home with steam pouring out of your ears. It's hot enough that even I can get burned by it."

"You're hilarious, Smallville. Go give my love to the kids and tell them I want them to go to bed on time, or else. You're too easy on them, but I love that about you, too."

* * *

><p>Walking off the airplane after the short flight, Lois waited at the bottom of the steps for Alfred before following him to the car, getting inside as he held the door open for her. Setting her bags aside, she dug out her phone again, having come to think of her trip to Gotham as an opportunity rather than an inconvenience. Scrolling through phone numbers, she found the one she wanted and set her phone to dial as she put it to her ear. It didn't take more than a couple rings for her to get an answer. "Lois Lane! To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?"<p>

Lois smiled hearing her voice, same as she always did on the rare occasions she got to hear it anymore. It had become an unexpected pleasure when she even got to hear the voice anymore. Most of their exchanges were via text in one form or another. "Well, Vicki Vale, I have been whisked to Gotham this evening by your local billionaire playboy on some business he didn't want to discuss over the phone. I don't know how long the meeting is going to last, but if it isn't too late would you be amenable to getting together for a bite to eat? I'm sure Bruce will offer to have Alfred make something but I'd rather go out with a friend than make Alfred cook for me. The poor man works for Bruce, who I'm sure is a handful at all times."

"Bruce a handful? Surely you jest." Lois grinned as she noticed Wayne Manor in the distance. Having only been driving a few minutes, she was surprised to see it all ready. She hadn't been aware that there was an airstrip that close to the Manor, but then it occurred to her that Bruce had probably built one, publicly explained as being for his private jet and privately used for his Batty activities. "And I would love to join you for a bite but Jeff and I are going over to his sister's place to eat with her family in about an hour."

"On a Thursday night? Is it a special occasion or do you two just like her cooking?"

"We do like her cooking, but it's more just something we tend to do at least once or twice a week. It's good, though. I don't even have any extended family so it feels like I do now, and every chance I have to spend time with Jeff's nieces, with my nieces, is good. They think he's the best uncle in the history of mankind despite seeing him so often and I'm hoping to establish that I am, in fact, interesting for reasons other than being pregnant. They're great girls; I really have come to love them, and I'm hoping they feel the same way and will start calling me Aunt Vicki pretty soon. I think it would be a nice thing to hear." There was a pause before Vicki spoke again. "Say, would you like to join us?"

Trying not to get overly sad at the sound of Vicki having said that she had no extended family, Lois sighed as she considered Vicki's words for a moment before saying, "Thank you, but I wouldn't want to impose. You should be using the time to earn your title, not talking to me."

"Come on. I will have plenty of opportunities to earn the title of Aunt, and honestly, I'm pretty sure they'll start calling me Aunt Vicki once the baby is born anyway. If not-so-gradually getting bigger and bigger while allowing them unfettered belly access through this pregnancy, not to mention giving them a cousin, doesn't totally win them over and earn me the title of Aunt, assuming I don't get it before then, then I'll just bribe them. Twenty bucks is a lot to little kids, right?"

Grinning, Lois grabbed her bags and exited the car as Alfred pulled the door open for her, mouthing a thank you to him as he took her laptop bag for her, which was attempting to fall out of her hand. Following him up to the front door and walking in as he opened it, she spotted Bruce standing down the hall. "I think twenty bucks does win over most young children, but I wouldn't try setting that precedent. If they're anything like I was as a kid then getting twenty dollars to do something just means that there are other things they can do to get money."

"You make a good point. Despite saving Jeff's life, marrying him and providing her with at least one niece or nephew in addition to a planned second niece or nephew, all of which has prompted Beth to say that she considers me her sister, I worry that giving her children money might be frowned upon. Now, what do you say to dinner? If you and Bruce are done in an hour we would love to have you. Right Jeff?" Lois heard him yell in the background that he would let Beth know to set an extra place at the table. "See? When Jeff tells her to set and extra place there better be somebody coming or there could be hell to pay."

"When you put it that way, I guess I have to come," Lois said, getting to Bruce and holding up a finger, which caused him to raise an eyebrow at her. She did the same right back, not willing to take any attitude from him after he had made her abandon her potential evening of relaxation to go to Gotham.

"Awesome. Having won, I'll let you go so you can have your meeting with Bruce. Tell him I say hello and not to hold you too long, though I doubt he can go forty-five minutes with you before he starts daydreaming about half naked starlets. I'll see you in about an hour."

"Bye," she said, checking the screen on her phone to make sure it had hung up before dropping it in her purse. "Vicki says hello. So, you're buying _Weekly_. Why did that require me to come to Gotham City on an evening that I'm told is the first time this week my children are actually behaving?"

"Because I have plans for what is going to happen with _Weekly_ and the _Daily Planet_, and you happen to be part of those plans." Following Bruce into a nearby den, Lois dropped her purse onto a chair as she watched him pour himself a glass of what she imagined was expensive scotch. He held up a glass towards her but she shook her head no; if she hadn't just made plans with Vicki and her family Lois would have been tempted, but she thought it best not to imbibe before going to somebodies house to eat dinner. "The reason I asked you to come to Gotham is because you don't ask somebody, especially not you, to swallow her pride over the phone."

"Bruce..."

"It was all you had when you left Metropolis," he continued, "your pride. Everything else in the city had been taken away. Your husband was missing, your house was cinders, your children living in another city. Even the people of Metropolis, those hopeful, great people that were so proud of their city and its protector were gone, turning their backs on you because you had the _temerity_ to stay loyal and insist that he shouldn't be blamed just because he wasn't there." Lois used the pause in the conversation so Bruce could sip at his drink to sit down, removing her purse from the chair as she did so. "You said it yourself when we broached this topic at Vicki's anniversary party: why would you want to go back to a place that rejected you?"

Lois rolled her eyes. "And yet here we are, talking about it again. I guess it was too much to have hoped that a quick conversation would have conveyed my dislike of the idea of returning to Metropolis."

"Why are you opposed to helping revitalize Metropolis?" Bruce asked, sitting down across from her.

"I'm opposed to helping people that have all ready rejected my attempts to revitalize Metropolis!"

"That's why I'm asking you to swallow your pride, Lois. It's not about the money for you and Clark because if it were, you two wouldn't be working in journalism, even if you do get paid more than almost any other journalist in the country." Setting his drink aside, Bruce got up and took a folder from Alfred, who was standing off to the side holding it, before walking over and handing it to her. "That's a business plan to distribute _Weekly_ along with Wayne Enterprises Media Holdings newspapers as a relaunch strategy." Staring up at him for a moment, Lois sighed and opened the folder, skimming pages while Bruce continued talking. "As you know, in today's world launching a print venture instead of online only news is a losing battle. I approached Perry with a plan to relaunch _Weekly_ as an online news organization that will do a quarterly print edition distributed with Wayne Media newspapers. Perry agreed to this plan."

"Sounds like a great plan, but what's the bottom line, Bruce? If I wanted to get involved in the business side of media I would have gone into management years ago." Snapping the folder closed, Lois tossed it back to him, Bruce catching it before handing it back to Alfred.

"The bottom line is that I showed Perry a way for _Weekly_ to live longer and be his lasting contribution to journalism. _That's_ why he sold to me. If he hadn't the magazine would have gone under within eighteen months unless print media were to magically become profitable again."

"Then why are you buying the _Daily Planet_?" Lois asked, unable to help herself. She knew what he was going to say but every now and again he surprised her with straight forward honesty.

"I'm buying the _Daily Planet_ because Metropolis is destroying itself and the Justice League is barred from trying to help. The police in the city are as much on the lookout for anybody trying to mete out vigilante justice as they are trying to handle the daily influx of criminals. So we've decided to try and help the city in different ways. My contribution is buying the _Planet_ and returning it to the people that made it so great." Bruce moved forward in his chair, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "As soon as the paperwork is finished Perry is going to resume duties as Editor-in-Chief of the _Daily Planet_ and choose a successor at _Weekly_."

"No fucking way," Lois said, shaking her head. "Perry would not leave _Weekly_ to take another job. He wouldn't do it no matter what job you offered him."

"If it was the way to save his magazine he would. He had been looking for investors but nobody wanted to invest in a print magazine that had an established journalism record but no nationwide reputation. Magazines don't sell based on the names Perry White, Lois Lane, Clark Kent and Ron Troupe unless it's to other journalists, and that's not a big enough subscription base to be successful. When I came along with money, a plan and one caveat, do you really think he would turn down the offer? He's not a young man anymore, Lois, and getting to choose his successor was highly appealing to him. It means the magazine will live on with his vision."

Standing up because this whole thing was making her want to pace, Lois settled for leaning on the back of the chair, sucking on her teeth as she thought about what Bruce was doing. Buy the paper where she had loved working. Return the editor she would follow anywhere to his rightful place at that paper. Now he was going to offer her the opportunity to return to Metropolis and work directly for Perry again, in the same office and everything. "I take it this is where you're going to top the offer you made at the anniversary party?" she asked, staring ahead at nothing rather than look at him.

Alfred produced another folder, this time handing it to her instead of handing it to Bruce first. "I'm offering you a five year contract to go back to the _Daily Planet_ that would start at twenty-five percent higher pay than your New York _Times_ contract, with a guaranteed raise yearly, not including any bonuses. Clark would receive a contract offer similar to the money you're currently making."

Reading through the numbers, Lois had to admit that the bump in pay would be nice, especially if they were going to have to move again. She wished she could be surprised that potentially moving again was popping into her mind, but the opportunity to try and save Metropolis... she couldn't deny that it appealed to her, no matter how much the rejection of her and her defense of Superman still hurt. She would always love Metropolis, at least for what it had been and what she knew it could be, but she couldn't love what it currently was. She could help fix it, or she could go on with what she was doing, being happy with their life in Connecticut and her job at the _Times_. "What about our house?" she found herself asking, her mouth speaking before her brain could stop it.

"Officially, I would purchase it from you for twice the value of market price. Unofficially, it would be a safe house for the Justice League for happenings in New York. We have one, but we should have them all over the region. One is too easy to find."

"_Twice the value_?" Lois said, incredulous. "Jesus Christ, Bruce! I thought you were out of your mind when you offered 50% over market price the first time we talked about this. Now you're offering more on top of that? That would be over $1.6 million dollars!"

"It would. I'm also buying houses for any top staff that returns to the _Daily Planet_ as a thank you for returning to help restore the paper after being summarily dismissed for standing up for what they believed in." He pointed to the folder in her hands. "If you flip to the last page, you'll see the house that I thought might be good for your family. It's in a suburb called Grand Mesa."

"Grand Mesa?" Lois asked, flipping to the last page. "That's the really rich section of town, like old money kind of rich with brand new multi million dollar homes." The house pictured looked brand new, and massive. Looking at what was listed below the picture she almost whistled. Six bedrooms, six full baths and two partials, three car garage, lots of windows for Clark to soak up sunlight, plus a sunroom, and it was somewhat isolated on two acres of land. "This is too much, Bruce. Way too much."

"This isn't an offer exclusive to you and Clark. Like I said, any returning senior staff will get this offer. You and Clark, Perry, Ron Troupe and others will or have all ready heard the pitch I'm giving you. Some have accepted, eager to fix what was broken, and others have refused because they've made a life elsewhere. But there are four names that are synonymous with the recent greatness of the _Daily Planet_: Perry White," he said as he raised a finger up in the air, "Lois Lane, Clark Kent and Ron Troupe," he concluded, four fingers now in the air as he walked over to her. "This is where I appeal to your competitive side, Lois. Do you want to let Ron Troupe be the one to get credit for helping restore the _Planet_? Are you content with your life or are you restless for another challenge? You've conquered print media. You were able to draw huge numbers of eyes to a small town newspaper when you wrote for the Smallville _Ledger._ Now you've essentially taken over the _Times_ and are making people regret that they appeared on talk shows with you. Are you willing to hold the fate of a great paper like the _Daily Planet_ in the palms of your hands? Or are you going to let somebody else do what you're too _prideful_ to undertake because they didn't want to read what you wrote?"

God, it was tempting. Being handed a house and getting twice the money they had taken out in loan to buy the house where they currently lived... and they could try to save their city. Jacob could acclimate to being back in Metropolis easily enough after all the moves they had all ready been through, and Cass might be and Devon would definitely be too young to even remember living in Connecticut. Lois thought Clark would tell her to accept right then and there but did want to talk things over with him. But there was one thing, one big thing that came to mind that held her back.

* * *

><p>Knocking on the door to Beth's house, Lois stared at the door, not really seeing it as she heard somebody inside approaching. Forcing herself to perk up so she wasn't a big downer at a family dinner where she was all ready intruding, she put her conversation with Bruce out of her mind and smiled as the door opened, Vicki smiling right back at her. Lois couldn't help but notice that she had gotten bigger since they had last seen each other, but as much as she wanted to comment, touch and hug, she remembered how much she had hated that, how much she had hated that her pregnancy would be asked about ten minutes before people remembered the pregnancy was happening inside of <em>her<em>, not public property. "Hi," she said, settling for the simple approach as she stepped inside. "Thanks for inviting me. Still feel like I'm intruding on your family time."

"Don't. We have family time at least once a week, if not more, and it happens every week so it's not like we're hurting for time together. You have good timing, too. The food should be ready in about ten minutes." Following Vicki through the house, she smiled at everybody when they noticed her as they shuffled around the table. She was pleasantly surprised to see that Sam was there, too. "Did you meet everybody at our anniversary and announcement party last month?"

"I believe I met everybody but these two beauties," Lois said, spotting two little girls that she thought would be Beth's daughters, sitting at the table while the adults bustled around them.

"Ah, yes. Beauty number one is Jenny," Vicki said as she placed a hand on top of Jenny's head, "and beauty number two is Liv. Jenny, Liv, I would like to introduce you to Lois Lane, a friend of mine. She's a journalist like me, but she works in New York City instead of Gotham."

"You do? What's New York like? I see it on TV and it looks really crazy!" Jenny said excitedly, apparently never having met anybody from New York before.

"I do work as a journalist in New York, and it _is_ really crazy." Smiling at Jenny, Lois slid into a seat next to her. "But New York is the big, bright, loud and exciting kind of crazy! It's really fun working there, and I bet if you ever get to visit you won't know what to do because there are so many fun things. I like going to Central Park, and the Central Park Zoo. My son likes it, too."

"How old is your son?"

"He's six," Lois said. "How old are you?"

"I'm eight. Liv is six."

"Both very good ages," Lois said, winking at them. Looking back over her shoulder and spotting Vicki talking with Beth Jeff, Lois moved in between the chairs of the girls and knelt down. "So, can I be honest with you two?" she said quietly, and they both nodded and moved in a little closer. "Vicki over there? We were talking earlier, when she invited me to join you guys for dinner, and you know what she said? She said she loves you two. I bet she tells you that whenever you guys see her, doesn't she?"

"She does," Liv said, Jenny chiming in with the same.

"And do you tell her that you love her, too?" When neither said anything, Lois smiled. "Well why not? Is it because of something she did? Something she said?"

Jenny shrugged, looking down at her lap. "Mommy said that she always wanted us to mean it when we told somebody we loved them."

"Well you should always do things that your mom tells you to do," Lois said, wishing she could drill that rule into the heads of her own children. She had a feeling that whatever mom said in her household was going to be the opposite of what happened. Stupid genetics. "But, even if you want to wait longer to tell her that you love her, that doesn't mean you can't call her Aunt Vicki, right? She would love that. You guys like her, right?"

"Yeah!" Liv exclaimed. "There's a baby in her tummy!"

"Well, now, I bet you guys like her for other reasons than that! She didn't always have a baby growing in her tummy, did she?" They shook their heads slowly as Lois did the same. "Of course not. And did you like her before she had a baby in her tummy?" They nodded, Lois joining in. "I thought so. Your Aunt Vicki's pretty great, isn't she? Nice, fun, funny. I bet she's all kinds of silly when she plays with you guys."

"She likes to do silly voices," Liv said. "She read me a story before bed when I had to go to sleep but wasn't sleepy. Usually Mommy or Daddy will read me a story but Vicki wanted to, and she did a different voice for all the characters." Swallowing at the thought of Vicki sitting in bed with Liv doing silly voices, knowing that she wouldn't do that with Jacob, Cass or Devon, was almost enough to make Lois cry, but breaking out into tears right before dinner was the kind of thing that would probably halt any more invites into Vicki's life. "I told her that I liked it when she finished the chapter, and she kissed me goodnight."

"Want to know a secret?" The girls nodded, so Lois continued a little more quietly. "Adults only do that for kids they love because we want you guys to have good dreams. Vicki wouldn't read to just anybody. And you know what else? One of the reasons Vicki wanted to have a baby is because she met you guys. She saw how much you loved your mom and dad and she wanted to feel that, too." From what Lois had gathered that was mostly true, if not quite the contributing factor she made it sound like. "So remember, while you shouldn't tell her that you love her until you mean it, maybe you could start calling her Aunt Vicki sometime. It would make her really, really happy." They both nodded slowly, leaving Lois to hope that they were considering what she had said. "Great. I'm glad we got to talk."

"And what were you three talking about exactly?" Vicki asked over Lois's shoulder.

Vicki and Beth both then appeared on either side of the girls, placing things on the table, to be followed by Jeff, Sam and Chuck doing the same. Lois, deciding to be playful, put a finger to her lips when looking from girl to girl, grinning as she stood up, straightening and smoothing out her skirt and blouse. "We were conspiring."

"Something tells me that you conspiring with anybody, let alone children, is a combustible situation in the making." Lois couldn't help but grin as Vicki eyed her before moving back into the kitchen.

Beth walked up to her, her eyes on the kitchen before she smiled at Lois and motioned with her head over to the side. "I overheard bits and pieces of what you were telling them."

"Sorry if I overstepped," Lois said, shrugging as they settled into a corner a little away from everyone else. "Vicki was talking about how she loves the girls on the phone earlier and was hoping she would get to be Aunt Vicki before she had the baby. Thought I might put in a few good words on her behalf."

"No, please do! I didn't even realize the girls hadn't told her that they loved her yet, and now that I know I'm mad at myself for not realizing it sooner." Beth shook her head, crossing her arms for a second before using a hand to motion towards the girls. "When I told them to always mean it when they said they loved somebody it was before Vicki had come into our lives, back when Jeff would occasionally bring women to dinner that I knew wouldn't last unless he was going to settle for somebody that wasn't good enough for him. I never thought about them not telling Vicki that they loved her, or not even calling her Aunt Vicki! Just never crossed my mind. I guess I got caught up in the Jeff and Vicki whirlwind, too."

"Yeah, she told me a few things about how they ended up together the first time we had lunch, the day after the Kerth Awards." Checking to see that they weren't being surreptitiously listened to, Lois leaned in a little closer. "Between you and me, how's she handling being pregnant? She seems happy, but from some of the things she had confessed to me previously I thought you might have a better insight into whether or not she's hiding some inner turmoil." Lois couldn't believe how much it hurt, having to get information about Vicki like this.

"She's not hiding anything as far as I can see, or that Jeff and Sam see. She is legitimately enjoying her pregnancy right now. A few weeks ago she even said she had never felt more feminine in her life!" Beth's smile gave Lois all the information she needed to know, that she believed Vicki was truly happy, but she listened anyway. "You should see her and Jeff when they think nobody is watching. One of them always has a hand on her stomach, usually both of them together. I never thought I would see Jeff like this. They bring out something in each other, that indescribable quality we all look for and only some of us are lucky to find. I got lucky, and I don't think the team of Lois Lane and Clark Kent would work so well if you hadn't gotten lucky, too. And now there is the love of Jeff Powers and Vicki Vale. They get attacked, he almost dies and they fall in love while she nurses him back to health. That's not a story you get unless you're meant to be together. They obviously have their fights and disagreements, same as everybody else, but they know how good they are together. I would put every cent I have on them going the distance. They may have gotten married in Vegas, but that was only because they couldn't wait."

Lois nodded, knowing that she was indeed one of the lucky ones, and was glad that Beth thought Vicki was lucky, too. "I was like that myself, once upon a time."

"Did you and Clark run off and get married, too?"

"No, but not for lack of trying. My cousin Chloe, who was my maid of honor, caught us trying to sneak away and elope because I was tired of planning the monstrosity and just wanted to marry the man I loved. She even used it in her toast, as a tribute to our love, saying we were so in love that we wanted to be married as soon as possible." Lois smiled as she watched Vicki talking to Jenny and Liv. "I know it was the wrong reason, but part of why I struck up a friendship with Vicki is because she reminds me of my cousin."

"How so?"

"Chloe was a journalist, too. She actually introduced me to journalism, and worked at the _Daily Planet_ before I had even sniffed being good enough to work there. I learned how to be great at my job. Chloe just was. It was her natural environment. But after being fired by the cowards on the board because Lex Luthor threatened to sue the paper over a story Chloe did, one that Clark and I proved was true, Chloe lost her way. She had some tough years, and just when she was getting her life back she was killed in the Metropolis bombings."

"I'm so sorry," Beth said quietly, but Lois shrugged, sighing quietly before looking back to Beth.

"It was just one of those random things in life that always seemed to work against Chloe. But then, less than a year later I met Vicki, and though I struck up the friendship for the wrong reasons, I really am glad to have her for a friend. She's somebody I can talk to when I need twenty minutes to myself while Clark attempts to wrangle our kids."

"She's a good listener," Beth said quietly. "I hope you've let her know how important you feel she is in your life. Don't make the same mistake I did by inadvertently keeping my children from telling her they loved her, something I plan on rectifying quickly. Now, enough of the heavy talk for one evening. Dinner's ready and I'm starving."

"I hope you guys didn't delay the food just because I was coming over."

"No comment," Beth said, grinning as they walked back to the table, everybody sitting down as they arrived. Lois was seated between Vicki and Sam, with Beth, Chuck, Jeff, Liv and Jenny rounding things out. "And even if we did delay a little bit for you, we always eat late anyway. The only two people at this table with any punctuality are the two that will soon have a baby and thus _stop_ being punctual."

"Keep dreaming. Vicki and I are going to prove that you can, in fact, have a child and be on time." Jeff punctuated his point by holding his fork up in the air before it was dropped into his lasagna. "There's a way to do it and we will find it, if for no other reason than to prove you wrong once again, right Vicki?"

Lois grinned around a bite of her food as she heard Vicki scoff. "Don't include me in your obsession with proving your sister wrong. I want to keep being somebody she likes and I am realistically preparing for the idea that our lives are going to be built around somebody else's schedule."

"Bah. Any baby of ours will have a reasonable schedule. Too much good sense between us to think otherwise."

"Really?" Beth asked, Lois watching as she shook her head before pointing her fork at her brother. "I'll make you a deal, Jeff: if you two have the first reasonable baby in the history of humanity then I'll go ahead and try to give Jenny and Liv the little brother they tell me they want so much."

"Whoa, hey..." Chuck said, looking at his wife with wide eyes. "I feel like there should be more of a discussion before you go striking deals that involve us having more children."

"Yes, I agree that there should be discussion, but remember, babe: there is no such thing as a reasonable baby. Everybody at this table that has ever had babies, or even been around babies, knows that they don't understand the meaning of reasonable, including my brother." Beth smiled at Chuck before looking back to Jeff, who had put down his fork and had his fingers steepled in front of his face. "Now, should your baby be just as unreasonable and demanding as every other baby ever born, then you will be required to try and give me a second niece or nephew within three years of when this one is born."

"Done," Jeff responded. He and Beth both reached across Chuck to shake hands, Chuck watching the shake while shaking his head and taking another bite of his food.

"Outstanding," Vicki said, Lois unable to help from smiling as her fellow reporter grumbled. "Why does this feel like my husband writing checks that my body has to cash?"

"We were planning on trying to have a second baby anyway, so really I'm not promising anything that wouldn't have happened anyway. Plus," he said, looking to Jenny and Liv, "it wins me points with my nieces, right you two?" Standing up, he reached across the table and fist bumped both of them before sitting back down. "Remind Vicki that it's always a good thing to win points with you two."

"It's always good, Aunt Vicki," Jenny said, nodding.

"Yeah, Aunt Vicki! And now we might get a little brother!"

"Well that's excellent," she heard Chuck mutter. "Not going to be unpopular at all when we have to tell them that it's never happening. _Again_." But Lois was more focused on Vicki, whose face had lit up upon hearing the girls call her Aunt Vicki, almost to the point where there appeared to be some tears in the corners of her eyes.

"You okay?" Lois asked her, and Vicki nodded.

"Yeah, I'm good." She smiled as she shook her head. "Just hearing them call me Aunt Vicki... I guess it had meant even more to me than I thought to have their acceptance. Feels really good, like I'm officially family to them now. And thank you, by the way. I heard what you when you were conspiring. You didn't have to do that, but thank you."

Lois winked at her, nodding as she looked back to her food. "When you're a friend of Lois Lane Kent, there's nothing too big or too small that she won't help with, nieces included."


	28. Chapter 28

- Chapter 28

Watching Vicki and her family as they all sat on Beth and Chuck's back porch, Lois couldn't help but smile as the four of them chatted, Jeff making big gestures at his sister while she did the same back at him. She figured it would be best to wait to go outside until they had stopped doing that, feeling that coming into the middle of a conversation like that could put her right in the middle of it, though she would be happy to take the side of whoever was right. Now that Chuck and Beth had put their daughters to bed for the night Lois thought the real conversations might begin instead of the mostly light hearted fare that had gone on through dinner. It had been nice to get a break from real conversation, as the one she'd had with Bruce had been real enough to last her for days. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that Sam was now standing next to her, watching the same as she was, and thought the other woman must have come to the same conclusion she had: better not to go out in the middle of an animated discussion between Jeff and Beth. "I'm curious," Lois said as she continued to watch the people outside, "do decisions to have more children usually come down to bets made between brother and sister in the group, or did I just happen to be here at the right time?"

"No, that one was pretty out of the blue. As long as I've known Beth she always said that she wanted two kids, and after having Liv she said the shop was closed. First time I've ever heard her bring up the possibility of a third. I'm curious as to whether she's actually thinking about it or if it just popped to mind because Jenny and Liv have said they want a little brother."

"I can hardly blame her, saying something crazy like that," Lois said, licking her lips as she crossed her arms over her chest. "If I had held to every crazy thing I had said because of being around a family member I would still be smoking, not be married and not have any children."

"Oh, of course. I just think Vicki is having an effect on everybody. She seems to bring out things in people around her. Jeff has always been a confident guy, even when he could barely talk to women, but he had a tendency to be in his head. Ever since Vicki came along, at least that I've seen, he thinks but he doesn't over think. He's more trusting in his decisions in every day life. Beth has changed, too. She doesn't worry as much anymore. I'm sure Vicki has told you how close they are, and if she hasn't I assume you've noticed it through their interaction." Lois nodded and Sam continued. "She used to confide in me all the time, sometimes in tears, that she was afraid he would spend his life alone, never truly allow himself to fall in love. That worry spread to other people, like me before I married Kyle a couple years ago. Or she would be overly anxious about the girls when it came to the potential severity of an illness, even a wimpy cold. Now... now she takes things in stride because she doesn't feel like she has to worry about her brother anymore. He has somebody to do that for him now."

"I hadn't realized how big of an impact Vicki has had on them, and I guess by extension the whole of the Powers/Davis families."

"Not just them, but our whole group of friends. It was like Vicki brought this new energy to the group that revitalized things we hadn't realized needed revitalization. I even heard a couple people besides Beth bring up babies! Our whole group of friends, outside Jeff, was _done_ having children. Now, with Vicki pregnant, at least a couple of them are thinking about it, and that's not including hearing Beth make a deal I never thought I would hear her make. Obviously there's no chance of her following through because the term 'reasonable baby' is an oxymoron, but still, very strange." For the first time in their conversation Lois looked over at Sam, who was looking back at her. "What about you? How has Vicki changed things in your life?"

Frowning and looking back outside, Lois sighed. "Seeing her and Jeff together got me to talk to you the last time I was here."

"The first time I met her she told me about her domino theory, about how in big groups of friends like those big domino displays you see from time to time, there are key blocks that get things started. If those don't fall correctly then the others don't. She applied that to winning over friends and family. She wanted to win over Beth, Jeff's oldest friend Art and myself because she thought that acceptance from us would mean acceptance from all. But strange as it seems, I think she was the key domino. We would have been fine without her but I think she was what completed the group."

"She does seem to have a talent for making the people around her feel better and want to be better." Lois couldn't help but nod. That was her girl. She had made Lois want to be a be a better journalist, had made Clark a better hero through their youth, even before she had known about his secret. That was what she did, no matter what name she went by. "Did she do anything for you, or are you immune to her influece because of your psychology training?" Lois asked with a smirk.

"She introduced me to Superman," Sam said very quietly.

Lois could only swallow, the smirk having been wiped off her face by Sam's statement. Clark had told her that he had revealed his identity to Sam in their first meeting, when she had told him that being honest with her and himself was what she asked of patients. Lois had almost dropped Devon as he had broken that news. She understood that he wanted to be who he had been, if that was even possible, but telling somebody his secret, even a psychologist? It made her nervous. "I heard about that."

Sam looked over at her and motioned back deeper into the house, Lois following as she started walking. When they arrived in the foyer, Sam stopped, looking around for a second before leaning in. "May I ask you something?"

"Look, if it's about Clark and some of the things he has told you..."

"No, no, of course not. I would never divulge that information. This is about me, and to a degree, you."

"Oh, uh, okay," Lois said, now a little confused. "Ask away."

Sam took a moment before she said anything, Lois unable to tell if she was trying to decide what to ask first or if she just wasn't sure how to ask what she wanted to know. "What... how did you handle what he told you, when Clark revealed his true identity?"

Repeating what Sam had done in looking around to make sure nobody was listening to them, Lois didn't have the same trouble in finding what to say. "First off, let me clear something up for you. Clark Kent is who he is. It's who he was raised as. He may have been born Kal-El, and his birth parents, Jor-El and Lara, loved him very much, but Jonathan and Martha Kent raised him. He is Clark Kent. As far as his public persona... Superman is what he can do, a bigger than life symbol of doing the right thing and being honest and forthright, of helping others. But he _is_ Clark Kent. Do you get what I'm saying?" Sam nodded, allowing Lois to continue. "Good," she said, glad she had cleared that up. It was something that Clark had been forced to explain to her at one point, something she hadn't gotten at first, but when she had, when she had understood, had slammed home, and she hoped that the same was happening for Sam. "As far as how I handled it when he told me? Not well." Thinking back to when it happened, Lois grimaced. "We were on my balcony and he was all nervous and, well, Clarkish, for lack of a better term. He said he wanted to tell me something and I thought he was going to tell me he was gay." At a look Sam gave her, Lois shrugged. "He's a gorgeous man and women would ask him out but he always declined, and I had never seen him date anybody but his high school girlfriend so that's where my mind went. Once we got past that he told me that he knew Superman, that the two of them were close. One thing led to another and the next thing I know he's removing his glasses, no longer slumping and pulling his shirt open to reveal the uniform. And then, much to my everlasting chagrin, I lit into him. Just tore him up one side and down the other."

"Why would you do that?"

"I had confessed things to Superman that I didn't think I would ever tell Clark. And then when he told me he cared for me, that he had wanted to ask me out but knew that I was infatuated with Superman, that he wanted me to want Clark Kent, not the symbol and abilities, I told him to leave. Things were tense after that and we did some poor articles as a result. Perry, our editor, thought we had slept together and it had gone badly, threatening to break us up if we kept turning in bad work. When we talked about how we were going to fix what was wrong, he said something that I will never forget, because I think it's the sentence that made me fall in love with him. 'Clark Kent doesn't measure up to Superman, Lois, no matter who you ask.' I couldn't get that out of my head for days. It wasn't that it made me feel guilty so much as it made me think about Clark Kent, and I mean really think. And when I did, I realized that Clark was amazing. When I figured that out I went to his place, we kissed, and here we are, married with children." Scratching at the corner of her mouth, Lois realized she had explained herself in a very roundabout way, so she decided to give a succinct version, too. "To answer your question, here's how I came to understand. Clark Kent is Superman, but Superman is not Clark Kent."

"I'm not sure I follow," Sam said, and Lois, despite feeling it might make more impact on Sam if she figured it out for herself, decided to explain what she meant. It was too important for Clark's mental health for Sam to be treating him in the wrong manner.

Lois held up her left hand. "One is a man, same as anybody else." She then held up her right hand. "One is the embodiment of a set of ideals, incorruptible in his goodness. A man, same as anybody else, can hold to those ideals, but people will always doubt the goodness of a regular man given gifts beyond the reach of humans. In today's society people wait for others to fail, ready to pounce on an opportunity to drag him down, prove he's _just_ a man. But a man from another world, sent as a baby to save Earth from the same fate as Krypton? While there are those that distrusted him because he's not from Earth, you saw how most people reacted to him. They didn't wait for him to slip up, to show that he was only human like the rest of us, because he isn't. That's why Superman isn't Clark Kent. Clark Kent is the adopted son of a farmer and his wife. Superman is Kal-El of Krypton, sent to save mankind from itself, a savior in our most dire hour and embodiment of everything good about humanity in a package that looks human, but it not. He's always there for us when we're in need, sacrificing his time and energy to help us."

"Except for the bombings," Sam breathed out, her whole body seeming to slump. "I've been going about trying to help him the wrong way."

"Then I'm very glad we had this talk," Lois said quietly.

"But what about you?" Sam asked as Lois turned to walk back to the others, stopping her in her tracks. "He always left you behind, gave his time to others when he could have been with you. How did you live with that on a daily basis?"

Lois half turned back, biting the inside of her lip as she did so. "Clark Kent is more human than almost anybody else on Earth. Same fears, same hopes and same dreams. We all need somebody to come home to, Sam, somebody that can act as a north star for when we feel like we're lost in life. That's what I became." Pausing, she turned her head again, back towards the way her body was facing. "I always knew that the world would get as much of him as I would, but Clark Kent is so perfectly human that even then I got more than most. That's how I could live with knowing that I might lose him at any given time. It was when he came back and I was getting less from him despite his not giving anything to the world anymore that I knew something was wrong, that his capture and incarceration had changed something. I might complain about the way he makes love, but really, I just want him to be able to give himself to the world again. I can live with whatever I get from him but the world won't last if there's no Superman. Metropolis proves that. When Superman didn't come, when the city lost the embodiment of the ideals it tried to live up to, the city started rotting. So if what it takes for the world to get Superman is that I get less Clark, then I'll consider it a good trade."

"And your children?"

"Have never gotten anything less then every ounce of love Clark is capable of." Turning back and facing Sam, Lois smiled. "Do you understand now? About the differences and about our relationship?"

Sam nodded. "I do. Thank you."

"Help my husband be a man that can help the world again and I'll consider us even."

* * *

><p>Lois grinned at Vicki as they slowly walked down to the car Bruce had let her borrow, a modest one by his standards. She thought it's depreciated value was probably more than five times what her car had cost new. "Thank you for inviting me tonight. It's nice to have nights like this every once in a while, where I don't really have to do anything except fly to a different city and have a business meeting that I was told about only an hour before."<p>

"The does sound relaxing.," Vicki said as they arrived at the car. "Am I allowed to inquire as to what your business meeting was about? I'm curious, mostly because Bruce having a business meeting confuses me. I wasn't aware he could be serious long enough for something like that to happen."

"He managed it, but just barely." Deciding to give Vicki the scoop, Lois leaned back against the car. "Wayne Enterprises is buying the _Daily Planet_ and _Weekly_. He said both should be announced shortly."

"Well that is big news, but I'm not certain why that requires you to come to Gotham City for a business meeting. Did Perry White give you an ownership stake in _Weekly_?"

"He did not, though if he had I would have made Bruce pay out the ass for my share of it. No, this was about him wanting to return the _Daily Planet_ to its former glory. He's going to change the format of _Weekly_ and let Perry choose a new editor for it because Perry is going back to the _Planet_, and Bruce wants me there, too."

Vicki went wide-eyed at that, walking over to also lean against the car. "Well that is most certainly worth coming to Gotham City for. Ashley is going to be giddy about that when the news breaks." That last bit sounded like it had been meant more for herself than Lois, as Lois had no idea who Ashley might be, so Lois let it go without inquiry. "Aren't you under contract with the _Times_ for the foreseeable future?"

"Only until July. I did a one year contract so I would have an out if things weren't going smoothly."

"And I guess this would be where you're thankful for that."

Lois shrugged. "Maybe."

"_Maybe_? Last I had checked Lois Lane and the _Daily Planet_ were still synonymous, at least in the public eye outside of Metropolis." Lois noticed Vicki's hand go to her stomach as she paused before she blinked a few times and looked over at her with a small smile. "Sorry, the baby fluttered, moved, kicked or whatever you want to call it and I'm still getting used to the fact that there's a baby moving around inside me. Anyway, what I was saying is if Bruce is going to breathe new life into the _Daily Planet_ then you should be there."

"I know. I've said for a long time now that I would follow Perry anywhere given the chance to work for him, but going back to Metropolis?" Exhaling loudly, Lois smiled to herself. "That's the whole reason Bruce wanted me to come to Gotham. Said he didn't want to ask me to swallow my pride over being rejected by a whole city over the phone. But that's the rub. Metropolis rejected Superman because he didn't come to help, and rejected me for trying to stand up for him. I wouldn't hesitate to go back if I thought it had only been out of short-term anger, if I had been fired a couple weeks after the bombings for not calling him out, but it was two months later when I was fired. From everything I've seen, rational thought has yet to return to the city. It's too busy tearing itself apart and blaming Superman for abandoning it, something I'll never believe."

"Me either. I obviously didn't know him like you did, but from everything we know about him why would he abandon the city? It only makes sense that something happened to him that kept him away from the city, that might still be keeping him away from the city."

"Exactly," Lois said, nodding, very happy that Vicki saw things the same way she had after the bombings. "The problem is that people got so used to things being one way, with Superman always arriving for the save, that when he didn't come help people were in shock and didn't bother to wonder why. I almost punched a guy in the office a couple days after the fact because he thought we should run an article about Superman abandoning the city. That sad truth is that, if anything, Metropolis was too reliant on him. I was the same way. Before I had children I used to take crazy, _crazy_ risks to get stories, thinking I would always come through because if things got tough, he would be there to help me. Even when I survived by the skin of my teeth, Superman barely getting me out, I would go do it again. He was always there for me, but if he hadn't shown up once and I had survived... I don't know, maybe I would have felt the same way, at least for a little while."

"Maybe that's the point you should make if you go back."

"Maybe," she said quietly. "The offer is... well, it's Bruce, so he went all out, but it's pretty absurd, even for him. As much as I would love to keep Metropolis in my rearview mirror, I still love what the city can be. Clark and I would have to uproot the kids again but we would be closer to his mom, who is basically my mom at this point, she's been mothering me for so long." Looking over at Vicki, she smiled sadly. "I wouldn't get many nights like this anymore, though."

"You would factor me into your decision to stay?"

"I think I told you once that I don't make friends easily. It's nice to have one that's only a few hours away. Obviously we could talk over the phone, and since we would both be under the Wayne umbrella could work together on pieces if we wanted to, but it wouldn't be the same. I haven't even lived up here a year and I've gotten used to having you within driving distance."

Vicki smiled but shook her head. "Please don't stay for me. I've got this whole baby thing I'm going to be doing come October anyway so by then it's not like you'd be seeing me all that much anyway. From the horror stories I've heard it's not like new moms are exactly flush with free time, let alone new moms that are workaholics, too."

"I can attest to that being true as a long time workaholic and former new mother. But don't worry, you'll handle it as well as anybody can."

"So not all that well?"

"Yeah, the first three months will be the longest blur of your life." Standing up, Lois stretched out her back. "I went back to work a week after Jacob was born just to make myself shower. It was the only way I could force myself to do something other than sleep or focus on Jacob. How much you love your baby isn't done justice by the words of others, and it's easy to get caught up in it, but it might be the most difficult few months you've ever loved every minute of." Lois nodded towards Vicki's stomach. "May I ask how your little one is doing?"

"Of course." Vicki stood up straight and flattened her shirt against her stomach, showing Lois the outline of it. "He or she is doing well, I'm told. Ultrasounds have looked good, moving around nicely and fattening me up daily."

"Whatever you want to call it, and I beg you to not call it being fattened up, you wear it well."

"That's only because I got huge up top first and my lower body hasn't expanded to ridiculous sizes yet, plus my face hasn't really gained much weight, thankfully. Right now I can classify myself as being the most curvy I've ever been. Six weeks from now I will be able to say the same thing, but I'm betting I'll be saying it in a much more annoyed tone."

"It's worth it."

"That's what I'm told."

Lois smiled. "I'm glad you and your baby are doing well. And on that note I should get out of your hair and go home to my own babies. They should all be asleep and peaceful by now, so that probably means Clark is going to hope for some sort of sexy reward for me abandoning him." Shrugging, Lois walked around to the drivers side door, hoping that Clark might indeed want that. If he did it might feel like things were going back to normal. "Night, Vicki."

"Wait! You can't leave me with a 'maybe' answer on whether or not you're going back to the _Daily Planet_. Give a girl some closure to the conversation, at least."

Lois smiled and opened the car door. "You know how you kept trying to talk yourself out of having a baby with Jeff when in the back of your mind you all ready knew what your answer was, and you just had to become comfortable with that answer?"

"I do remember that, yes."

"That's me and the idea of moving back to Metropolis. I'm not ready to admit to myself that I want to go back there, that I want to pick up where I left off and tell the people of the city that they have been and are continuing to be shortsighted, reactionary idiots. I will be, probably after I talk to Clark tonight. As long as he's willing to be my full time partner again, Lane and Kent will be back in action in Metropolis. God help us all."

* * *

><p>Closing the door quietly behind her, Lois pulled her laptop bag off her shoulder as she walked into the house, dropping it and her purse into a chair as she walked past it on her way to the kitchen, where she found a bottle of wine uncorked and waiting for her on the counter with a glass. Smiling, she poured some and sipped at it, closing her eyes as she silently thanked Clark for knowing what she would want after a long day of work followed by a long evening of plane rides, business propositions and heavy conversations about her husband's numerous names and what each one meant. After taking another sip Lois decided that it had been a long enough day that she could do with a little extra, pouring some more into her glass until she got to the point where she thought she might actually feel it a little bit. Much as it pained her to admit it, age and not drinking as much had killed her alcohol tolerance. She doubted she could out drink a Russian Private anymore, let alone a General. Setting her glass down, Lois stretched her arms out over her head, both of her shoulders popping as she did so. "Ow," she muttered, taking another sip of wine before walking back to the living room and plopping down on the couch, as much as one could plop with a full glass of wine in hand. Putting her feet up on the coffee table after she had kicked off her heels, Lois let her head rest against the couch as her eyes closed, her eyelids thanking her not being forced to stay open any longer. Fatigue catching up to her or the adrenaline she had been relying on to stay awake while riding the train home having finally worn off, Lois was ready to fall asleep right then and there, no questions asked. Clark could carry her to bed, as he had on one of the numerous times when a long day had caught up to her before she made it to bed. One of the many great things about Clark was his ability to move her from couch to bed without waking her up. One of the little things in life to be thankful about.<p>

"Hey," she heard Clark say, and she opened one eye to smile at him as he stood in front of her. "Let's go to bed. You look like you could use a full night of sleep, or at least as close to a full night as you can get when arriving home just after midnight. I would have been down here to greet you but Cassidy had a bad dream."

Frowning, Lois opened her other eye. "That's three nights in a row. Should we be worried about that?"

"I don't know, but I don't think so. I would be more worried if she'd had nightmares frequently before this, but it wouldn't hurt to ask somebody about it. Unfortunate that we're running into something new, but then I'm glad Jacob didn't and doesn't have lots of nightmares."

"Definitely a positive," Lois said after taking a sip of her wine. Pointing across the living room, she said, "There's something you should look at in my laptop bag. It's a folder from Bruce about why he asked me to fly to Gotham tonight."

Looking back, Clark went and unzipped the bag and pulled out the folder, flipping through it quickly, his eyebrows climbing up his forehead the more he read. "Wow. He really wants us back at the _Daily Planet_. What did you tell him?"

"I told him I would talk it over with you before making a decision, of course. We'd both make more money, we would make a huge profit selling the house to him, he would buy us a ridiculously gorgeous house in Grand Mesa... It's so much that it makes me suspicious. It's the proverbial offer we can't refuse, which means he's trying too hard to get us back to Metropolis. He came out and admitted that because the Justice League isn't allowed to help that rejuvenating the _Daily Planet_ is part of a plan to help the city, but still, they could do it without us, couldn't they?" Lois knew that she was arguing against the eventual answer, that she was confirming things she had thought and said earlier in the evening, but she wanted Clark's honest opinion. She wanted his unbiased thoughts before confessing that she thought they should probably go back. Otherwise he was liable to say yes because it was what she wanted. He had a bad habit of doing things to make her happy. "Do we have to be the ones to help save the city that rejected us?"

"No, we don't, Lois. But..."

"But what, Smallville?" she asked.

"But if you want to go back, then I guess..."

"What about what you want? I don't want to make this decision on my own. We have to make it together or else I'm just dragging you and the kids from city to city. I don't want that. I want us to be partners, just like we've always been."

Clark walked over and sat down next to her, staring out into space with a weird look on his face. "They know me, Lois. They know me well. The reason the offer is so over the top to get us back to Metropolis is because they want me back in the city, to see how people are losing themselves as the city rots. They know I won't be able to stop myself from helping people in Metropolis if I'm there, hearing people get mugged and assaulted, corner stores and banks getting robbed. But if I do... if I tried to help people they would bomb Metropolis again, Lois. You can't imagine how thankful I was that you weren't living there anymore when I was released, that I didn't have to stop myself from helping people every day."

"They would bomb Metropolis again because you started being Superman again?" Lois asked. This was the first time he had made mention of that. She had assumed that his reasons for not going back to being Superman were related to his capture, but because of psychological scars, not over threats to kill more people. "Smallville, you can't let them dictate your actions."

"They used my goodwill against me. They flooded villages and drowned people to capture me so they could blow up half the city infrastructure and apartment buildings! Over a thousand people died because I couldn't save everybody!" Clark got up off the couch and started pacing slowly. "I only ever wanted to help people and in trying to do so enraged the loved ones of the people I couldn't help so much that I drove them to kill others to discredit me." He stopped pacing and looked her dead in the eye. "What good is a hero that turns people into killers, Lois? What good is a hero who can't even save himself?"

"Clark, they had amassed enormous amounts of kryptonite!" Lois said as she popped up off the couch, walking around to him. "There was nothing you could do."

"I should have tried harder. I should have been here for you, for Jacob and Cassidy, to see Devon be born! I should have kept trying until they killed me, kept pushing until I couldn't push anymore, kryptonite be damned! I have every power in the world and all I could do was sit in the middle of my cell, half heartedly trying to think of ways to escape because I was afraid of being exposed again in some new, more painful way! The only ways to pass the time were watching the outside world, watching my hallucination masturbate or sleep, and all the last one ever did was earn me a painful awakening. I can't do it again, Lois. They'll never stop. They said they only cared about Metropolis but that was bullshit. City after city will be bombed until Superman disappears for good. Enough people have died because I thought I would try and help the world. I can't go back to Metropolis. It's easier here, where I can work at home and can tune out the people. But there... I won't be able to help myself, and in helping others more people will die."

Lois wanted to cry. They were in his head, had been in his head the whole time and she hadn't seen how much he was hurting. He'd had little bouts of anger but had always calmed down and been himself afterwards. Not now. He had finally exploded, but worse, he sounded scared, defeated. Every self doubt that he'd ever had was back in full force. He had reverted back to how Chloe had described him when they were in college, taking the blame for everything that other people did that he couldn't stop, for things he had no part in. She knew there was nothing she could say to help him, nothing that would alleviate his pain or fear unless he finally faced it. Walking to her purse, Lois grabbed her phone, scrolling to a number and tapping the screen to set it dialing, Putting it to her ear, she looked up at Clark, who was staring at her, confused. "Wayne Residence," a familiar voice said on the other end, and Lois could tell by the widening of Clark's eyes that he hadn't known who she was calling.

"Alfred, it's Lois," she said quietly. "Tell Bruce..." Pausing and swallowing to steady her voice, Lois knew that what she was going to say was going to hurt Clark, but she knew it was what she had to do. If she was lucky, one day he would forgive her. "Tell Bruce we're in. We'll move into the house in July and I'll publish my first piece when my no compete clause runs out in October."

"I will pass along the message, Mrs. Kent."

Pulling the phone from her ear, Lois hung up and tossed it back towards her purse, not looking to see where it had landed. Walking up to Clark, Lois cupped his face with her hands. "Smallville... my Smallville... I love you."

"Lois, please, don't do this. I can't go back. _Please_."

Oh, God. Nothing had ever hurt her like the plaintiveness, the hopelessness in that please. "Yes, you can. You can and you will, Clark. Maybe not with the children and me, but you will come back to Metropolis. If you're not ready in two months then we'll wait for you there. I will _always_ wait for you, but I can't be part of you hiding from the world anymore. Superman is too important. I love you for who you are, Smallville, but what you can do is just too important. Some people may not see the difference between the man and the suit, but I do. I just want the man. I only want you, Smallville, but if I let you stay like this then I'm part of the problem, and I need to be part of the solution." Threading her fingers up into his hair, Lois gently pulled his head down to where she could kiss him, try to tell him just how much she loved him, how much it hurt her to have to do this to him. "I have faith in you," she said breathlessly after breaking the kiss, "and I will always love you. But I can't be selfish and keep you to myself anymore. The world needs Superman as much as I need Clark Kent."


	29. Chapter 29

- Chapter 29

Inspecting her naked body in the full length mirror she and Jeff had in their bedroom, Vicki tilted her head to the side, eyeing the changes as she turned to see what her profile now looked like. It was like a stranger's body was being reflected in the mirror, yet a body that she knew was distinctly her own, despite all the changes. It was difficult to believe that after all the hard work she had always put into her body, after years of working out and watching her diet to keep her body lean and toned, that she liked the way she looked. No, liked wasn't a strong enough word. She _loved_ the way she looked right now. She was curvy, her boobs huge, hips widening and butt enlarging. But while her boobs continued to grow exponentially and her hips and butt sped up in their expansion, with that expansion it was like those parts of her body were filling out to give her a more alluring figure before she looked like a huge pregnant whale. If this was a common feeling for most women during pregnancy she could understand why the second trimester was generally looked upon as the best.

"I have no idea what you're doing," she heard Jeff say as he walked into their bedroom, loosening his tie before slipping it off over his head and tossing it on their bed, "but I really like it. If this is what I'm going to come home to whenever I have to work late then I will be working late for the rest of your pregnancy."

"I'm admiring the way my body is handling pregnancy," she responded, keeping her eyes on her body in the mirror as she turned to get her profile from the other side. "I know there were some weeks early on where I complained about morning sickness and sensitive nipples, and that I've never known discomfort like I will experience in the last month of pregnancy, but right now, I look amazing."

"I can confirm that to be the truth of the matter."

"I mean, I know everything is getting bigger, but right now nothing but my breasts and my stomach have grown _that_ much. And even then, when the growth seems absurd, it's at least for a good reason." Turning and facing Jeff, who was sitting on the edge of their bed, Vicki walked over to the bed, stopping just in front of him. She reached up and cupped her breasts, lifting them slightly. "So our baby can eat." Moving her hands down she stopped them on her stomach, interlocking her fingers just below her navel. "Because our baby is healthy and growing." Moving her hands again, she stopped them on her hips. "Because our baby needs the support and so he or she can be born." Stepping closer to him, Vicki took his hands and pulled them around behind her, placing them on her butt. "Because you're an ass man."

"This is either the greatest foreplay ever or you're a lot meaner than I had thought and I'm going to have to go rub one out," Jeff said quietly in a husky tone, looking up, but at her breasts instead of her eyes. Removing his hands, Vicki took the left one and placed it on her breast, moving his fingers so that he was rolling the nipple gently between his thumb and forefinger. In part it was to keep teasing him, but it was also to see how sensitive she was feeling, and it wasn't the bad kind of sensitive right now. As much as she had turned him on with her list of how her body was changing, she had done the same to herself as she had gently slid her hands from place to place on her body. The way she was feeling, she thought it must be true that some women come to love pregnancy sex, at least for a while. If running her hands over her body was all it took to get aroused anymore she had a feeling she might be liable to jump Jeff after the slippery gentleness of showers for the next few months.

Leaning over slightly so her breasts were level with Jeff's face, she let go of Jeff's right hand and used her own to take the breast they weren't currently manipulating together to tease his lips with the nipple until he couldn't resist opening his mouth, his tongue lightly making contact with the tip of her nipple sending a jolt of pleasure through her body. Reaching for his free hand again, she entwined her fingers with his again as she guided it between her legs, and after a second of adjusting their hands started tracing the outside edges of her labia with his finger before starting on the inside edges. She could feel as his finger started spreading her juices around her lips and was unable to stifle a moan as she started gently using his finger to stimulate her clit. "Leave your hands where they are," she said, removing her hands from his as she reached down and unzipped his pants, reaching inside to find his cock. It wasn't difficult as he was as hard as she had ever felt him, and with quick manipulation had it out in the open air, running her hand up and down it very slowly. Feeling his finger start moving more quickly and the sucking on her breast get stronger, she used her free hand to reach back and slow his hand down before looking him in the eyes. "Slowly," she said with a seductive smile, "and gently." She saw him go wide eyed for a second before nodding slightly, her breast still in his mouth. "Switch," she said, and he did so quickly, moving his head from one breast to the other, stimulating the other nipple gently with his hand, same as he had been doing with the other. His left hand replaced his right between her legs, a finger resuming stimulation of her clit in the same slow, easy manner she had established with him a moment before. Vicki kept running her hand up and down his cock, stopping momentarily at the top and running her thumb over the head before starting back down. On the next pass she did the same thing and felt him moan into her breast, her thumb encountering precum this time around. "Don't take your mouth off my breast," she said, "and don't speed up your movements." She gave his cock three quick strokes and felt his whole body stiffen but he did as she had instructed. "You're _so_ close, aren't you? Just a few more flicks of my wrist and you would blow like Vesuvius." He moaned into her breast as a response.

Stopping her hand at the base of his cock, Vicki smiled as he went wide eyed again. "We can do this one of two ways, which are the fast way or the slow way. So the question is, Do I let you finish now or do I stretch it out? Do I make you come all over your pants or do I ride you until you pop?" He bucked his hips against her hand, making the choice easy for her. "Slow way it is," she said, grinning at him. She was close, too, close enough that if she let him speed up she would orgasm standing right there in front of him, but she was enjoying this too much to let it end so quickly. "Put in one finger," she said, "and use your thumb where you were using your finger." He did as instructed and Vicki closed her eyes as she felt his finger slide into her slowly until it hit the perfect spot, Jeff knowing her body well by now. When she opened her eyes after a minute of reveling in the feeling, she saw the look on his face, the sweat on his forehead and knew that he was going to come soon, no matter how she stalled. Removing her hand from his member, she pulled away and turned around before backing up to him, hearing him breathing hard. That didn't stop when the backs of her legs touched his and she slowly lowered herself down. Reaching down she found him again, and quickly had their bodies lined up, dropping down onto him without so much as a warning. She waited a second as the pleasure raced through her, both to collect herself and see if he had come at just that. When she didn't hear his tell tale sounds, the moans and gasps she had memorized to know when he was orgasming, she reached back and found his hand, warping it around in front and guiding the finger to her clit again. She started it moving slowly and she moved slowly, but knowing neither of them were going to last much longer, she said, "Faster." He obliged and Vicki felt her muscles start to contract on their own, start to spasm oh so pleasurably. "Harder," she said as she moved faster on his cock, and just as she felt her toes curl and the pleasure overwhelm her she heard him moan loudly, feeling that extra little bit of dampness inside as he came in her.

As she came down Vicki slowed her movements, Jeff slowly softening inside her. Leaning back into his body to catch her breath, she heard him panting, could feel his eyes on her as he opened them again, knowing that they had been closed when he came. "I love you," she whispered, feeling him start to kiss her neck, his arms wrapping around her body.

"I love you, too." He said quietly between kisses.

* * *

><p>"<em>Chloe?"<em>

_Chloe's head spun and her eyes widened. How had she not heard the door open? That was all kinds of not good, not to mention who it was that said her name being a recipe for disaster for her plans. Her best laid plans apparently meant squat. Turning back to Lex, she eyed him while speaking to her cousin. "Lois, what the hell are you doing here?"_

"_You have a gun pulled on Lex, Chlo. What I'm doing here doesn't matter."_

"_So this isn't a joint venture between you two? I thought that where one of you went, the other was never far behind. Though, since you got fired from the _Daily Planet_, Chloe, I'm not surprised you drifted apart."_

_Gritting her teeth, Chloe didn't spare her cousin another glance. She motioned for Lex to sit down. He smiled at her. "I'm fine right where I am, thank you."_

"_Lex, sit down, dammit!"_

_This time Chloe did spare her cousin a glance, wondering why she was the one yelling at Lex. Looking back at her target, Chloe frowned as he kept smiling while moving over to his chair and sitting down. Running a hand back through her hair, she tried to figure out what the hell she was going to do. "How did you find me, Lois?"_

"_A lot of stress and a little luck. What are you doing?"_

"_Making the world a much, much better place than it has been for the last forty years or so. I'm doing what has to be done to keep this man from plaguing the world when your son gets older."_

_When Lois spoke, she sounded closer than she had been before. "Chloe, this isn't the way to do that."_

"_This is the best way to do it, Lois. He ruined my life and the lives of countless others, and if he doesn't die it will never stop. I can't stand by and watch him keep trying to lord over the city while screwing with the people so much that they can't even see how evil he is."_

"_Perhaps what the other people see is what actually is true, Chloe," Lex said. "Plus, how am I responsible for ruining your life? We are each responsible for our own lives, and any misery you feel is a direct result of your own actions."_

"_My own actions? You were kidnapping the children of the meteor infected and experimenting on them! All I did was expose your operation for the direct violation of human rights and decencies it was and somehow I end up getting screwed over. Those would be the results of your actions, Lex."_

"_Chloe, we have the proof."_

"_Proof of what?"_

"_Proof that Lex's lab existed. We have time stamped video that we got from one of the scientists that worked there, one that Lex recently tried to kill. He did kill the two other main scientists that worked on the project, Aaron Davis and Marianne Stone."_

_Chloe looked down at the ground for a second before looking back up at Lex. "Aaron is dead?"_

"_He was killed outside his cabin in Oregon. Executed. Two bullets to the chest and one to the head."_

"_Oregon?" Chloe tried to think of when she'd last heard Lois say something about Oregon. "Wait, was he the source in Oregon you had to ditch me for months ago?"_

"_Yes. He was willing to come forward, and pointed us in the direction of Hewlett, who pointed us to Stone." Lois was standing beside her now. "Stone is the one who made the recording and Hewlett recovered it from the charred remains of her house. They think that it was arson that killed her, Chloe. Pair that with what happened to Davis and the attempt against Hewlett, it all points back to Lex, and now we have evidence. We can put him away." She looked at Lois, who smiled at her. "You don't need to do this, Chloe. You don't need to become someone like Lex to beat him. We're better than that. Clark and I did this investigation to help you get your life back, so that you can live again."_

_Chloe looked back to Lex, who had stood up again. Frowning, she thought about what Lois had said. "What about the people after me, Lois? The others that get in the way won't have you as a cousin to help them? He can tie up any resulting court case for years with his army of lawyers and go on ruining lives." A slight glare reflected off of something in Lex's right hand that was almost totally behind his leg. Not letting on that she had seen, she spoke to Lois. "It' too risky, Lo. He shouldn't be allowed to keep ruining lives."_

"_You're not judge, jury and executioner, Chloe. Whether he lives or dies isn't your decision."_

"_Nor should it be." Chloe took a step toward Lex as he spoke. "While I appreciate this special familial nonsense, and I'm touched you don't think I should die, Lois, I would really prefer if you two could hash out your issues elsewhere."_

"_Shut the hell up, Lex!"_

"_Please, Chloe, this has gone on long enough. You don't have it in you to shoot somebody. I very much doubt that you would even use that gun against somebody actively attacking you, which I am not."_

_Taking aim, Chloe pulled the trigger. A second after the bang a cry of pain came from Lex and he stumbled backwards. There was a thump as something dropped to the ground, and looking down, Chloe saw that it was a gun. Walking over, she picked it up. After a quick inspection of the weapon, she backed up to where she had been and held his gun in her left hand. He looked up at her as he clutched a hand to his arm, his eyes full of the Luthor venom she had become so familiar with since high school._

"_Chloe, please!"_

_Looking back at Lois, Chloe held out her own gun for her cousin to take. When she didn't, Chloe just stuffed it into her bag and switched Lex's gun to her right hand. "Killing Lex with his own gun. More fitting that way."_

"_Chloe, I know you're angry, and I know that you blame Lex for everything that's happened to you, but this has to stop! You shot him! As much as we loathe him he's still a human being, with all the rights to NOT get shot by somebody!"_

"_I don't care!" Taking a second, Chloe calmed herself down a little bit. "Do you think I'm at a point where I want to bother with his rights? The world is better off without him!"_

"_And what about you? You're going to go to jail! If you kill him you'll be arrested and very likely be sentenced to life in prison without parole!"_

"_And? What the hell do I have to live for, Lois? I'm so far gone that I'm here, pointing a gun at a bleeding Lex Luthor after having already shot him. I thought that there was a good chance I could die tonight and yet I still came. My life isn't worth living."_

"_Bullshit!"_

"_Bullshit? You have had a front row seat for my life since April. My home is in your basement. I don't have a job, and with Lex alive I'll never have one for long before I get fired. I'm penniless, virtually unemployable and so angry every minute of every day that I don't think I could fall in love if my soul mate appeared before me right now. I'll be living in your basement forever, the woman that can't love, can't get a job and lives in her cousin's basement. That is not a life worth living."_

"_You live in her basement? How unpleasant that must be."_

_Chloe looked over at Lex, who was leaning against the window. "Please keep talking, Lex, and hasten your death."_

_He glared at her but shut his mouth, and she looked back to Lois. "I have nothing. All I feel is anger. That's it. How am I supposed to live like that? How am I supposed to exist when I'll only be able to get meaningless jobs to maybe scrape by a living, hating myself while doing so? What's the point of living if you hate your life?"_

"_What about me, Chloe?" Lois sounded like she was crying, which was something Chloe didn't think she wanted to see. "What about Clark? And Jacob? My son needs you in his life. You're his Aunt Chloe! He wouldn't even exist if it weren't for you!"_

"_And I'm sure that one day I'll be his crazy Aunt Chloe because of this, Lois."_

"_Do you want him to think that?"_

"_I don't care, Lois. Everybody has family issues and I'll just have to be his."_

"_You don't have to do this, Chloe. Just give me your bag and Lex's gun."_

_Chloe smiled back at Lois for a second before looking at Lex again. "I love you, Lois, and Clark, too. I love your son like he was my own. You guys don't deserve to be burdened with me anymore so I'm doing one last thing before I unburden you." Swallowing, Chloe felt a tear trail down her cheek. "Don't let Jacob find out about all this too young, all right? And tell him that I love him, forever, and that that was true before I lost my mind." Before her cousin could answer, Chloe aimed at Lex's chest and fired twice. As soon as she had pulled the trigger the second time Clark appeared before her, standing between her and Lex. Where she expected a look of concern she got a pale, ashen face. She looked down at his body and noticed blood seeping out of his chest from two holes. Her eyes widening with panic, Chloe looked up at Clark's face and for a second, he stared back at her. She could see the pain radiating from his eyes. He coughed, a little blood bubbling out of his mouth. _

_Then he collapsed._

_Eyes wide, Chloe couldn't blink as she watched Clark collapse onto the ground. Her mouth slightly open, she simply stared at the sight of Clark unconscious on the floor, blood quickly pooling beneath him. She sucked in some air as she saw something move out of the corner of her eye, but she couldn't make herself look away from him. Wanting to move, her body seemed unable to respond to her mind's desperate requests to help him. The only motion she managed was the gun falling out of her hands and onto the floor, a quiet thump she couldn't pay attention to. "Chloe!" She would have sworn she heard he name called, but it didn't register in her mind. How had she shot him? He was invulnerable. It couldn't be done with the simple lead of a bullet. How? It didn't make any sense. He shouldn't be there on the ground, his life oozing out of him. He should be standing there, having crushed the bullets and telling her that murder was never the answer. "Chloe, you have to focus! Come on! Are you with me?" Chloe blinked, but could still only focus on Clark's body. This had to be some sort of dream. Even with the way things in her life went now, this couldn't have happened. She couldn't have shot Clark._

_But she had. She had shot him. She tried to blink away her tears as she nodded. "Y-Yeah, I-I'm fine."_

_Lois nodded. "Good. You have to heal him."_

_Chloe's eyes narrowed. "What?"_

"_Your meteor power, Chloe. You need to heal him with your meteor power."_

_Taking a moment to breathe, Chloe closed her still open mouth and nodded once more, her brain finally kicking into gear. "Ok, yeah. You, um, you need to dig the bullets out of him." Wiping away a tear, Chloe ran a hand back through her hair. "I don't think healing him would do any good with them in there, so you do that."_

"_Why can't you help me?"_

"_Lex has a personal video system in here that's only accessible from his computer. I'm going to destroy it."_

_Lois looked at her for a second before nodding her ascent and moving back to Clark. Chloe heard her murmur something to him before there was a cry of pain, causing Chloe to wince and shrink away for a second. Gathering herself again, she picked up the gun before pulling her own out of the bag as well before walking over to Lex's computer. Without hesitation, she fired off the rest of the clip into it before firing the entirety of her own gun's clip into it as well, leaving it smoking and riddled with holes. If that didn't do the trick it would take Clark's powers to finish it. Turning back to face Lois and Clark, she saw her cousin working her fingers around in one of the holes in Clark's chest. She pulled out a bullet and looked at it for a second. "Kryptonite. Lex lines his bullets with kryptonite, the bastard."_

_Chloe stuffed the guns in her bag before kneeling down on the other side of Clark, looking at Lois. "Is that both of them?" When Lois nodded, Chloe took a deep breath and readied herself for what was to come. "He's going to have to carry me out of here."_

"_I know. Clark will carry us both."_

"_I'm so sorry, Lois." Chloe swallowed and shook her head. "Will you tell him that for me?"_

Eyes opening, Vicki closed them again as sunlight hit her, a painful awakening after another of the intense dreams where people called her Chloe and Lois was ever present. But now things were getting really strange. Before it had always been the two of them, usually with a cameo from Clark Kent, but now he was in her dreams and his face was on the body of Superman, which was just weird, except he didn't look any different. It was still Superman, even with Clark Kent's face, except no glasses and his hair was slicked back. Sitting up, Vicki frowned as the image of Clark in the Superman guise popped into her mind again, and how in her dream Lois had referred to him as Clark, not Superman. But the picture of him in her mind wasn't any different than the pictures she recalled from the _Daily Planet_, which had usually had the best shots of him. Rubbing at her eyes, Vicki shoved that to the back of her mind as she reached over and shook Jeff's leg, causing him to stir and groan. "Come on," she said, taking a moment to cover a yawn and rest a hand on her stomach as the baby started rolling around, kicking or whatever it was it was doing that caused what she felt. It was a nice feeling to wake up to, now that she was getting used to it. "I know we took the week off as a pre-baby vacation and to get stuff done, but that doesn't mean we should sleep all day."

"Yes it does," he said into his pillow. "That's exactly what it means. Vacation time means sleeping time. Have to enjoy it while we can. Very few uninterrupted nights of sleep for at least two years once the baby is born according to numerous friends, and since we'll probably have another baby by the time year three rolls around that's a lot of years with very little uninterrupted sleep. That means we should sleep now."

"You've really latched onto the whole having multiple children thing, haven't you?" Vicki asked as she slid a leg over and started running her toes slowly up and down his leg. "We don't even have the first one yet and you're thinking ahead to the next."

"You agreed that it was a good plan." Jeff sounded more awake now, but she could tell he wasn't all that thrilled about her continuing the conversation. "Verbal contract is binding in Gotham. Therefore, multiple children. Lawyered."

"You've used that one on me before. Try again."

With a huff Jeff rolled over to face her, lying on his side rather than on his stomach. "Fine. My real answer is that I think we're going to love our baby so much that despite all the hard work, despite the complete rearrangement of our lives, despite having an unrecognizable set of priorities from what we had one year before the day our baby is born, we will cherish every minute of it. We're going to love this baby so much that one won't be enough. We're both people that like a challenge, and one baby? Won't be enough of a challenge for us. We'll need a second baby just to make sure we don't smother the first with love. How's that for an answer?"

Considering it, Vicki thought it was actually a pretty good theory. "I approve, and I doubt I'll be able to talk you out of it, so unless labor is horrific and my uterus falls out, we wait eighteen months and then work on baby number two. Oh, and by the end of your little spiel you had gotten kind of out there in your reasoning."

"Yeah, I veered off the path a little bit after the one won't be enough bit. But I stand by my words. Despite all the insanity involved in raising a child, once you fall in love with the first one you need a second one to avoid love smothering. I'm sure if I looked hard enough I could find some science to back me up."

"Love smothering." Shaking her head, Vicki laid back down, her back to Jeff, who she felt move closer until his front was flush with her back, a hand resting on her stomach, something he had taken to doing whenever they were together in bed. "I think you're losing your mind if your second child reasoning is to avoid a love smothering of our first child, which is really kind of a morbid idea when you think about it. Prefer not to have the word 'smother' in the same sentence as our child."

"Morbid? Yes. True? No. Something that isn't morbid and makes sense in a brain that needs another hour of sleep? Very much so. I could be persuaded out of more sleep, but it would require practicing at making a second baby. What say you?"

"I say you're welcome to try, but now that I'm laying down I don't feel like moving."

"I accept your challenge."

"That wasn't a challenge!" She exclaimed as his hands started to roam, one working its way into her shorts.

"Sure it was. I want sex, I'm welcome to try and you don't want to move. Obviously there was a challenge that I should try to make you orgasm while you don't move, aside from curling your toes. It was unstated, but it was clearly there. Besides, it's only fair. After the way you took advantage of me last week by looking at yourself naked in the mirror and then putting your hands all over yourself, I owe you one."

"I was showing you how my body had changed for our baby!" Vicki had to bite her lip after getting that out as she tried not to squirm. Even while pregnant Jeff knew exactly where her pleasure points were. He had even discovered some new ones recently that were in spots that had never been erogenous before, but boy were they now.

"You rubbed your nipple on my lips until I started sucking on it. That's seduction in most countries and a crime for being too forthright in all the others. Now hold still." Vicki couldn't hold in a little gasp as he spanked her, causing her to still the rubbing together of her legs she had been trying to do slowly while hoping he didn't notice. "I've got a challenge to win so don't go moving around or else we'll jut have to try again tomorrow." His hands stilled and Vicki could feel his breath on her neck and ear, trying not to move as it caused her hair to lightly brush against her skin. "On second thought, move around all you want."

* * *

><p><em>Chloe walked outside, dialing the cab company whose number she kept handy for just such occasions. A few minutes later she was sitting on the curb, waiting patiently when a motion in the corner of her eye alerted her to somebody else sitting down. "I'm fine, Lois," she said quietly before her cousin could ask her how she was doing.<em>

"_You were buzzed at five thirty in the afternoon and didn't say five words tonight, at least not five that weren't involved with getting drinks or food."_

"_I didn't have anything to say."_

_Lois scoffed. "I seriously doubt that."_

"_I got turned down for another job this afternoon so the drinks were a consolation prize." Chloe paused for a second, laughing to herself. "And of course, tomorrow was supposed to be my wedding. Can't believe I'd almost forgotten that tidbit." _

"_Chlo..."_

"_As far as tonight... I don't even know why I came. I knew what was going to happen because I've been to these things for two years now, ever since we made it a regular occurrence, but I came anyway."_

"_What are you talking about?"_

_Chloe looked over at Lois and smiled sadly. "This is a couples night, Lois. The fact that the couples are made of our friends and family is nice but that doesn't change what it is. Before, when I was actually part of a couple, I could enjoy it without realizing what it was, but to be single and sit through it... perspective is everything."_

_Lois looked like she wanted to frown, but looked away instead. After a minute of silence, she finally spoke. "You could always date, Chloe. That might help."_

_Chloe let her head drop and chuckled. "Lois, I've loved three men in my life. The first was Clark, and yeah, he was a high school and slightly beyond crush, but I was never what he wanted. It happens. Then there was Jimmy. I loved him, he loved me. I felt I had to hold a little back in that relationship, and that part was my fault, but I saw him looking at Kara as soon as he met her. This was before I ever pulled away, or at least around the same time. I felt like I was in it as much as I was capable of and it wasn't enough. And then there was Mark, a man I loved like I had loved no other. I had never opened myself up to a guy like I did Mark because I would see what you have with Clark, what Lucy has with Jimmy and what Lana has with Pete. I wondered why I didn't have it, and I figured that part had to be it, that part of me I was afraid to give, because my relationships never lasted. This time I really opened up and I was with him for two and a half years. It was amazing. And then that night came. He tells me never loved me. He wanted to, but it wouldn't happen. He tells me this four days after I get fired from the Daily Planet for doing my job so well I had Lex worried enough to try to scare the board into firing me. And it fucking worked! Who else but me could get fired for doing her job well? Work bullshit aside, I've now become unlovable to guys. How did I need that? I all ready had enough problems with men because I was never the hottest one in a room, or the most interesting or even the go get 'em type that could be aggressive. I never stood out because I was pretty good but standing in the midst of excellence. But I thought I had gotten lucky because I had found somebody I thought loved me for me. What I had really found was somebody that thought I was good for him but never loved me and couldn't no matter how often he said he did. Then he found somebody else and didn't tell me for eight months. Love at first sight, of all things!" Chloe rested her face in her hands then lifted her head so she could wipe away a tear. "I appreciate the offer to get me out there, Lo, but I think I'm done with trying to find somebody that loves me. I'm tired of being the wrong woman. It hurts too much and I have enough problems in my life that I don't need to add that on. One way or another I end up alone so I'm just cutting out the painful part to keep what little heart I have left."_

"_Will you at least keep coming whenever Pete and Lana have the opportunity to come to Metropolis? They love seeing you. I can go get them right now and have them tell you."_

"_Maybe I will again after I've had some time, but right now... right now I'm just tired of being the person everybody feels sorry for, the person everybody wishes didn't feel so awkward. The only thing people ask me anymore is if I'm all right. It's not their fault because I would do the same thing if situations were reversed. But to endure more nights like this... I don't know if I would survive another conversation centered on children with my sanity intact. It's all anybody talks about anymore. Pregnancy, babies, children doing this or that. I can't listen to it anymore, Lo. It's too depressing to know how close I was to the same happiness you all have only to realize I was never really as close as I thought, and a night like this is a reminder of that."_

_Chloe spotted the cab driving down the street and stood up, holding out a hand to wave the driver over. She looked back at Lois, who was standing up and dusting herself off. "We want you here, Chloe. Never doubt that."_

"_I don't, and I won't, but like I said, this is a couples night and I am most definitely not part of a couple." She leaned over and hugged Lois quickly before pulling away. "I love you."_

"_I love you too, Chloe."_

_As soon as it stopped, Chloe jumped in and told the driver where to go. Half an hour later she was walking into her building, heading up the stairs and into her hole of an apartment. She let her purse drop to the floor and pulled off her shirt and shorts before sitting down on the bed. She felt a little cool air hit her back from the window mounted air conditioning unit before bringing her legs up onto the bed and stretching out. Lying on her back, Chloe stared at the ceiling, wanting to be tired but finding that it wasn't happening. She felt like she should be tired, but her body couldn't muster it. In her lonely apartment, laying on her bed and staring at the ceiling after drinking like a fish for most of the afternoon, she couldn't fall asleep to save her life. What a happy life she led._

Coming awake, Vicki blinked as she looked around, not remembering where she was for a moment before spotting some of the tell tale signs that she was in one of the girl's rooms before remembering that she and Liv had decided to curl up for an afternoon cat nap after they had all gone swimming. It was Father's Day and Beth had insisted that after she and the girls had spent the morning making Chuck feel like a king that she and Jeff spend the rest of the day with them to celebrate Jeff's impending fatherhood. He had almost insisted that they not go over and indulge Beth in her continued obsession with him procreating but Vicki had made him realize that, while Beth may go a little overboard sometimes, it was only because she was excited for him and because he was not always the most excitable guy in the world. It could sometimes be difficult to tell how excited he was unless he was really excited or really annoyed, which was accompanied by a distinct look. Vicki had seen that one a few times and come to recognize the signs that it was coming. After checking the clock beside the bed and finding that she had only been asleep a little over an hour and a half, she looked down at Liv, who was curled up against her, smiling as she lightly played with her niece's hair. She was a sweetheart of epic proportions, happy and possessing that Powers smile that made Jeff and Beth so easy to love. It was also easy to love her because she had told Vicki that she loved her when they were falling asleep, the first time she had heard it out of either of the girls. It was a feeling of happiness that had gone straight to her heart, Vicki failing at not crying before having fallen asleep. If she was lucky her own son or daughter would be born with that easy Powers smile and happy temperament that they seemed to have. That had to be a good way to go through life, though she had never had many problems with her own method of single-minded determinedness and dry, witty commentary. Most of the problems were a result of the commentary escaping her mouth before having time to think through what she was saying, resulting in foot meeting mouth.

If Vicki were really lucky, she thought she might at some point stop having dreams where she had her natural blonde hair and was playing the character of Chloe Sullivan. It was like her brain was trying to make her live a much different, much more depressing life in her dreams, which seemed like the opposite of what one wanted from dreams. She'd had nightmares in her life, of course, but until getting pregnant she had always had a hard time remembering her dreams unless they stood out for being particularly great or particularly horrifying. The one where she had shot Superman with kryptonite bullets in Lex Luthor's gun had been memorable because of the horror involved, to say the least, but then all the dreams where she was Chloe stuck in her mind, more like memories than dreams. Her brain was going to start getting full if she kept remembering her dreams so well. Gently sliding away from Liv so the little girl could get a little bit more sleep, Vicki hoisted herself out of the small bed, a task not so easily accomplished as it once would have been, and upon standing she stretched. Her back popped painfully as she did so, causing her to wince and drop her arms, using a hand to rub the spot where her body had decided to stage a protest against movement. That was happening a lot more now that she was getting older, despite having taken such good care of her body. She knew that nobody fought father time and won, least of all women that weren't far from forty and pregnant, but still, that was no reason for her back to side with father time. If you were fighting a losing battle you didn't switch to the other side and hope to be one of the winners instead! That was just bad manners, Vicki thought as she padded out of Liv's room and down the stairs, stretching again in a much more cautious manner as she walked towards the kitchen. Grabbing a glass out of the cabinet and some juice from the fridge, Vicki poured herself a glass and downed it before pouring another one and replacing the juice. Walking to the main living room, Lois found Jeff sitting on a big couch, all by his lonesome, while Beth and Chuck leaned against each other on an adjacent couch. Chuck was the first one to spot her, smiling and indicating that she should take a seat. "Where's Jenny?" she asked as she sat down next to Jeff, leaning back against him.

"She conked on the family room couch about twenty minutes after you and Liv went upstairs," Beth said. "I think she would have been fine normally, but the heat today took it out of her."

"Definitely a scorcher, at least for Gotham," Vicki said, nodding before taking a sip of her juice. "I think today is the hottest it has been since I moved here. Last summer was pretty mild, and I was just settling in the August before that. I had forgotten how much it can take out of you."

"It doesn't help that you're carrying around a little something extra," Jeff said, patting her stomach a couple times before she swatted at his hand.

"Yeah, I know. Still, before I worked at the _Chronicle_ out in San Francisco I spent just over two years in Austin working at the _American-Statesman_, and today is still mild compared to some of the summer days I experienced there. A mild summer in Austin meant you went two weeks between hundred degree days, and I did not experience a mild summer. The two I was there for were more along the lines of stupid hot, where you went two weeks between days where the high was _only_ 100."

"That doesn't sound dangerous at all," Chuck said, shaking his head. Like the Powers siblings, he had been born and raised in Gotham, and like Jeff hadn't even bothered to leave the city to attend college. Trying to imagine a Texas summer, or summer in any other southern state, probably didn't work very well. She imagined it was probably like somebody in Austin trying to imagine a Gotham winter. "Why would people choose to live somewhere so hot?"

Vicki raised an eyebrow. "Why do you guys choose to live in a crime-ridden city where a vigilante in a bat suit is better at enforcing the law than the police are? And don't use that you aren't raising children in the city itself as an excuse. Gotham City, the _whole_ of Gotham City, needs serious work. Why do you think I came here? It certainly wasn't for the scenic views of dirty beaches."

"Obviously it was for the hot lawyers."

"Well, I had heard good things about the lawyers that weren't crooked, as strange a concept as an honest lawyer is," Vicki said with a grin, glancing back over her shoulder to see Jeff mock frowning at her. "What, you expect me not to comment on your ridiculous insistence that I came to Gotham for you, because I felt that my one true beloved was here and I _had_ to find him?"

"Awww," Beth said, shooting Jeff a look as she placed a hand over her heart.

"I prefer romantic to ridiculous, but whatever." Wrapping his arms around her midsection, he put his chin on her shoulder. "How about we say that you came for the crime and stayed for the hot lawyer?"

"_That_ we can do because I would hate to have to tell the truth and say that I stayed for one that was just okay looking." Grinning, Vicki decided to move on before Jeff could continue the debate. "So, what were you guys talking about before I so rudely interrupted? I'm assuming it wasn't me, fun as it is to be the center of the conversation."

"You assume incorrectly. We were talking about how long Beth's labors lasted when Jenny and Liv were born."

"I'm assuming there's a logical explanation for how that topic came up and I'm pretty sure that I wasn't involved in either of those happening so I'm not sure how you were talking about me."

Beth smiled, and shifted so she was sitting differently, Vicki taking the opportunity to sip at her juice again. "Jeff wanted to know how long my labors lasted so he might have some idea of how long things might last come October. And we were discussing how long mine lasted will probably have very little to do with how long your lasts. The only thing I can say for sure is that Powers babies have a history of liking to take their sweet time. In Jeff's baby book our mother wrote down that labor lasted twenty hours, and in my baby book it says I took eighteen hours to be born. Don't ask me why I remember those facts, I just do. Anyway, Jenny and Liv both took their sweet time, too, as I went for nineteen _long_ hours with each."

Opening her mouth to say something, Vicki closed it again, not wanting to ask a question about what enduring nineteen hours of labor would be like. "Let's hope there's enough Vale in this baby so that nineteen hours after my labor starts I've been resting comfortably with our new baby in my arms for eighteen hours. We are an impatient bunch, though I couldn't tell you how long I took to be born. Pretty sure I never knew that info."

"How about we set the over/under at fourteen hours?" Jeff said, both Chuck and Beth nodding.

"I'm putting twenty bucks on the over," Beth said. "Sorry, Vicki, but Powers are stubborn. When we get comfortable somewhere making us move is a pain in the ass. And in this case, the stomach, back and vagina, too."

"Same bet on the over for me. I've learned never to bet against my wife if I expect to end up happy afterwards, win or lose." Chuck smiled as Beth patted his leg.

Vicki looked back and saw that Jeff was making a show of thinking through his answer, before saying, "Fifty on the over. All the books say that an average first time labor lasts around twelve hours, and any kid of ours is going to stretch that out _at least_ another two hours just to prove that he or she isn't going to be a pushover."

Looking around, Vicki nodded at each of them before she grinned. "A hundred on the under. This baby knows where its meals are coming from for at least the first six months of its life and up to a year if I can manage to breastfeed for that long. Plus, like I said, Vales are impatient, so I think by the time labor gets going this kid will be more than ready to start breathing air instead of amniotic fluid. _And_," Vicki said, holding up a finger, "if I hit thirteen hours of labor and still have more to go I'm giving my OBGYN a thousand bucks to reach up in me and start pulling the baby out. One way or another it's going to hurt like hell, so it may as well hurt the fast way."

* * *

><p>Flexing her hands as she pulled them off her keyboard, Vicki sat back in her chair a little to give her back a break from the way she liked to sit on the edge of her chair when she typed. Taking off her glasses and setting them on her desk, she rubbed at the corners of her eyes before suddenly yawning, slapping a hand over her mouth before anyone caught her sitting back in her chair yawning like she had been there for three days straight instead of not even a full day. She had replaced her glasses and was putting her hands back on her keyboard when Ashley came walking over to her desk, not at all her usually bubbly self, instead appearing to be in shock as she sat down on the other side of Vicki's desk. "Is everything okay?" she asked, unable to remember the last time her coworker hadn't been smiling brightly.<p>

"Yeah, no, it's great," Ashley said, pulling some hair back out of her eyes. "I just got a call from Perry White. He said that he was given some of my articles and liked what he saw, that I have the potential to be really good and that I've come a long way since joining the _Gazette_."

"I should hope so," Vicki mumbled. "I've had to work like crazy to see that you did."

Ashley appeared not to hear her, instead continuing with her story. "Here's where it gets even weirder. Mr. White said that _Lois Lane_ gave him my stuff and told him she thought I would make a good addition to the _Daily Planet_ when he takes over again starting July 21st. He wants me to go to New York and talk to Lois on Friday afternoon and to consider it a preliminary interview. If she gives me the green light then I'll fly out to Metropolis to interview for him a week from Monday. I don't know how... I mean, I hadn't even heard that he was going back to the _Daily Planet_! And how did Lois Lane hear about my work? It's not like I'm writing pieces that are getting national recognition."

"I gave her your name," Vicki said, smiling as Ashley's eyes went wide.

"Seriously?"

"Of course. You've said that your dream is to write for the _Daily Planet_, that it's the one job that you would leave the _Gazette _for_._ When Lois, a friend of mine, told me that Bruce was buying the paper and recruiting the people that had taken it to the top to return, plus new blood to work with the returning journalists, I gave her your name and told her what to read. Why do you think I've been mentoring you for almost a year and a half, Ashley? For my health? So you could stay here and try to supplant me as the top banana while I'm out on maternity leave? You're good enough to make a name for yourself now, so I thought you could do so at your dream job."

"I can't... I mean, thank you _so_ much, Vicki!"

"Don't thank me until you've got the job," Vicki said, turning to face her computer again. "And not only do I expect you to land the job, I expect you to be amazing. I didn't turn you into a halfway decent journalist so you could go out and make me look like a bad teacher. If you do that I will have to come out to Metropolis and give you a swift kick in the ass." Ashley hopped up out of the chair and walked around the desk until she got to Vicki, leaning down and hugging her around the shoulders. Unable to keep herself from smiling, Vicki half returned the hug and gave her a couple pats on the arm before getting released. "Now get back to work. I don't want you daydreaming the rest of the afternoon anyway about how great it will be to work with Perry White and Lois Lane because it won't be a dream, it will be hard work. If you think I've been tough on you, I'm betting you haven't seen anything yet."


	30. Chapter 30

- Chapter 30

As the elevator doors opened to reveal the bullpen Lois walked out, same as she had a million times before, but it felt different. It felt like coming home, being back in the _Daily Planet_ bullpen. The problem was that whoever had been running the place in her absence had changed everything. The desks on the floor were laid out differently, televisions mounted in different places on the walls and columns so that the different desk placements all had clear views of them. She didn't like it, and it was going to be a pain in the ass to fix. Things like this went to prove that changing something Perry White had done was never a good idea. He knew news, even when it came to the layout of a news room. Now she had to figure out what he was going to have her do for the better part of three months while she was barred from writing for anything but _Weekly_. She really should have pushed harder for only a one month no compete clause in her _Times_ contract. She had known to do that this time, plus include some outs if living in Metropolis became too onerous. It had helped that Bruce had acquiesced to pretty much any contract request she had made to get her back to Metropolis. That was why she now only had a four day work week so she could spend Fridays at home with Jacob, Cass and Devon, and when Jacob started school again in the fall it would be girls day every Friday. Knocking once before opening the door, Lois found Perry sitting behind his desk, chewing the end of a cheap cigar she knew he would never bother to light while reading something in a folder. He always chewed on the cheap cigars so he didn't ruin the ones he would actually smoke. "It's nice to see you sitting back there again, Perry," she said with a smile, noting that he had all ready put his office back to how it had been arranged before they were all fired, aside from some new pictures and knickknacks.

"It's nice to be back," he grumbled, "though somehow this place found a way to become more of a headache than it used to be. I still have to hire new staff, new layout people, photographers... the only thing I can tell that my predecessor did was hire everybody in the world that should never work at a newspaper, let alone the _Daily Planet_! Great Caesar's ghost, this place is a disaster." Tossing the folder on his desk, he looked up at her before pulling the cigar out of his mouth. "Since you're useless to me when it comes to producing content I'm making you my managing editor for the next three months. Going to be a pain in the ass with you being off on Fridays, but I figure I can run the show once a week. Can't believe Wayne allowed you to sneak that into your contract."

"Managing editor? _What_? Why?"

"Did you think I was going to let you sit at home for three months while you're getting paid by the _Daily Planet_? If I'm paying you then I'm going to get some use out of you! You'll be in charge of making sure deadlines are met and deciding what goes on the front page, plus all the other editors will report to you. Your office for the next three months is the corner office down that way," Perry said, pointing off to his right but all ready looking back down at his desk, opening the folder that he had been looking at before. "Congratulations."

"Congratulations?" Lois choked out, wide eyed as she tried to figure out what had just happened. Technically she had been promoted, but she didn't want to be promoted! "Perry, I appreciate the offer, but-"

"Offer? This isn't an offer, Lane, it's an order. Now get to work. The paper isn't going to put itself together and I have a dozen fires I have to put out before lunch."

"But... shouldn't I at least get some training?" It pained her to have to ask that, as it felt like rolling over, but she didn't see another way around things. She would go stir crazy if she took three months off and sat around her huge new house, or more likely, chased her children around her huge new house. She was legally barred from writing for a newspaper and Perry hadn't assigned her and Clark anything for _Weekly_ yet, which had now switched over to its online and quarterly print distribution plan. That meant her only option was running the floor for Perry until she could write full time, which meant she had a feeling she was going to be ready to kill some people come October 23rd.

"Training? What the hell do you think I've been teaching you the past thirteen years? You ran the whole damn paper for a day during the bombings! You have all the training you need and it's long past time you dip your toe into the management pond." He looked up again, not looking quite so gruff now. "You've got the skills, Lane. Only reason I sprung this on you out of the blue is so I wouldn't get an earful for a week about how you didn't want to do it. Consider this me throwing you in the deep end. I suggest you start swimming." Nodding, Lois turned and had a hand on the door when Perry spoke again. "Where's that clumsy farmer husband of yours? Still in Smallville?"

"Yeah," Lois said. "He's having anxiety issues when it comes to being in the city. Considering the last time he was here half the city blew up and he lost almost ten months of his life I can't say I blame him." Looking back over her shoulder, Lois smiled sadly, unable to help herself. "I miss him. When I accepted Bruce's offer to come back I thought that would spur him to try and come back, maybe just drive into the outskirts a few times before coming into New Troy, but even driving in the direction of Metropolis when leaving Smallville puts him on edge. He's seeing somebody about it but it's been over two months and now I'm here with the kids and he's not. Never thought I would be living without my husband again." Swallowing the anguish that was trying to escape, Lois opened Perry's door, knowing that she could let herself break down in front of Perry, but not the whole newsroom. "I'll send you updates before lunch and an initial layout for tomorrow's edition by 4pm."

"No need. You'll make the right decisions." Lois smiled at him quickly before walking out of his office, only to have to stop again as a young blonde woman that looked familiar stepped in front of her.

"Mrs. Kent, hi! I know it's your first day but I wanted to thank you again for passing my work on to Mr. White after Vicki told you about me." That was who she was. Vicki had thought Ashley Adams would be a good addition to the paper, and Lois had agreed after reading some of her work. She could see Vicki's influence in it but she had her own style that jumped off the page, especially given the right topic. She had been surprised Vicki was willing to give her up, let alone recommend her. It had made her suspicious at first, Vicki willingly giving up somebody young and talented she had put a lot of time and effort into making better, but after being told that Ashley's big problem was being annoyingly happy and bubbly Lois had happily sent her on to Perry with her own recommendation that she be strongly considered. Now she was going to have to take what Vicki had built and put on the finishing touches. "Having a chance to write for the _Daily Planet_? It's amazing. And getting to work with you? I grew up reading your work, Mrs. Kent. It's what made me want to go into journalism."

"First off, enough of this Mrs. Kent jazz. Every time you call me that I start looking around to see if my mother-in-law is here. Call me Lois." She grew up reading her work? Jesus, that was a reality check. Suddenly the fact that she was going to be thirty-nine in less than a month felt a lot more like she was turning fifty-nine. "Second, follow me." Lois started walking towards her new office, frowning as she got to it, looking down the hallway to her left towards where her old office was, the one she had loved sharing with Clark. At first it had felt cramped, sharing her office with him, but then it had become great, a place where they could close the door and talk frankly at work, which had helped a lot when they didn't want to have to talk in code about his Superman duty. Pushing open the door to her new office, Lois stopped just inside the door, looking around at what would be her home away from home for the next three months. It was bigger than her old office, and with the desk in the back near the windows she had room to put a table in so she could stand and work when she needed to. That would be handy. Even with a table, there would be plenty of walking room. It had always been annoying when she wanted to think while walking and had been forced to walk circles around desks. That got old quickly. Walking to the desk, she ran a hand along it before turning to face Ashley, who had stopped about halfway into the office.

"Vicki did a lot of work to turn you into a good journalist. Trust me, I went back and looked at your first articles at the _Gazette_ after reading your most recent stuff. She turned your raw talent into actual skill. Now we're going to see if that's because you can actually hack it or if you were so good because you had Vicki holding your hand. I'm not allowed to publish anything for the _Daily Planet_ until October 23rd because of a no compete clause I had in my last contract. Perry made me his managing editor until I can write again, but I'm going to need something consistent on a day to day basis besides having to yell at people and put out fires." Lois had a bad feeling that by the end of the third month she was going to be popping antacids the same way Perry tended to pop blood pressure pills, and if she found her first non-pregnancy related gray hair before the end of October she was going to rain hell on whoever had the bad judgement to get in her way afterwards. "Vicki wouldn't have given me your name if you didn't deserve to be here, but you still have rough edges. Consider me your sander. I'm going to knock every bad habit out of you, and maybe even a few good habits that I don't like. Your articles will come directly to me. I'll talk to whomever gets hired to run city and features and let them know that you belong to me for the next three months." Leaning back against her desk, she smiled at Ashley. "Questions? Comments?"

"I, uh..." Ashley cleared her throat and blinked a couple times, her wide eyes trying to go back to normal. "No, ma'am," she said quietly, causing Lois to smile in earnest now. Standing up, Lois walked over to her put a hand on her shoulder, giving her a reassuring squeeze.

"Trust me, kid, this is a good thing. It's better for you if I'm working with you rather than ignoring you. Now go get to work. I'm sure you're working on something so I expect to see what you've done by the end of the day." Ashley nodded before leaving her office, Lois shaking her head as she turned and walked to the windows. Looking out over the skyline of Metropolis, Lois couldn't help but sigh. What she wouldn't give to know that fixing Metropolis would be as easy as molding a young journalist. She had driven through the city before bringing the children to the new house, wanting to inspect things for herself before she started working in Metropolis again. It had not been pretty.

Things had been rebuilt since the last time she had been downtown, the day she had been fired, but the city was doing a poor impression of itself. People on the street had seemed to be looking over their shoulders, waiting for something bad to happen. When she had stopped to buy some gasoline she had been the only person that wasn't looking around like she was about to get carjacked. People had looked at her like she was crazy as she had leaned against her car, taking a moment to relax in the middle of a depressing day. The man behind the counter had met her smile with a frown, one that had deepened by the second. She had known right then that she was back in Metropolis, but she wasn't in _her_ city. Now she had to try and do what she hadn't been able to do in the aftermath of the bombings: find a way to show the people that they didn't have to capitulate to the sense of foreboding in the city, didn't have to settle for this sad state of affairs. If people weren't more receptive this time around at least she knew ownership wasn't going to fire her if sales dipped. Knowing that hadn't done her much good last time, but since this time she had an in with the owner she felt a little more confident in her knowledge. Turning away from the windows, Lois sucked on the inside of her cheek for a moment before picking up the phone, punching in the number for the Kent Farm before she could stop her fingers. Putting the phone to her ear, it didn't take long before Clark answered, Lois smiling sadly as she leaned against her desk again. "Morning, Smallville," she said quietly, sighing as she let her eyes slide closed. "How's life in the country?"

"Sunny and bright, but lonely. I miss you guys."

"We miss you too. _I_ miss you like crazy. I never thought I would have to live without you again. It's not enough, only seeing you on weekends. It feels like we're being punished for something."

"I'm sorry, Lois. You shouldn't have to feel this way. If I wasn't so... if I didn't..."

"Clark," Lois said, breaking the lingering silence, "I understand. I know that you're trying and that there is real, visceral fear for you involved. I wish it didn't have to be this way, that we could all be together, but if we weren't here there would never be any incentive for you to come back. I can't... I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I let you linger and put off something you need to do. As much as I would love to be selfish and have you all to myself for as long as I live, it hurts the rest of the world. I have to share you."

"You keep saying that, Lo, but even heroes are allowed to retire, and I still think it's for the best that I stay out of commission. If I couldn't save myself, if I caused the city to be bombed..."

"I know, Clark." Rubbing a hand over her face as she shook her head, she tried not sigh at hearing Clark give her the same reasoning again. She hated hearing him sound so defeated but she was tired of him falling back on the same excuses he had for two months now. He went to therapy every week, but by listening to him she would never know it. Nothing had changed about the way he thought about Metropolis, about his excuses for not coming back to the city, and as a result he was now living at the farm while his wife and children lived three hours away. Whoever had said absence makes the heart grow fonder obviously hadn't ever endured an actual absence. Hearing a knock on her door, she looked back over her shoulder, seeing somebody poke his head in. She motioned for him to come in. "Look, I have to go. Perry made me the managing editor for the next three months and it appears I all ready have to put out a fire. Love you."

"Love you too, Lo," he said.

_I wish that would be enough_, she thought, waving over the guy waiting for her attention so she could focus on something else.

* * *

><p>"What's the headline?" Lois asked, leaning back against her desk with her arms crossed as the section editors sat and stood around her office. After some bumps in the road the first week, now that she was at the end of her third as managing editor she thought she was getting the hang of being in charge of everybody. It wasn't all that different than being a parent, she had found, with the biggest difference being that the tantrums tended to take place behind her back rather than in the room as soon as she shot somebody down. She had all ready been forced to take the business editor to task for going around telling people that they didn't need to take her seriously because she wouldn't be in the job anymore by the end of October. It had been nice to have an excuse to release her frustrations on somebody.<p>

"I was thinking 'Metropolis Schools Failing Children'." Glancing at Derek Wright, the new City and Features editor that had started at the beginning of the week, she looked back to the center of the room, staring at the floor for a moment before shaking her head.

"It's been done to death, no matter the headline. People have come to expect failing grades from Metropolis schools the last couple years, ever since they fired the teachers that refused to teach current events minus heroes. Lead City with that." Having looked into the background of the teachers being fired, Lois hadn't been able to help writing an editorial about the state of affairs in a city if recent events were being censored to pretend something benefitting the world wasn't happening. She had then had to let it sit on her computer since she couldn't publish it for the _Planet_, and she doubted Perry was going to let her throw it up on _Weekly_. "We'll stick with Laura's piece about cronyism in the Metropolis PD. Hit me with some better headlines in an hour. Everybody else come back to me with layouts by three." Walking back around her desk as she heard people shuffle out of her office, Lois sat down and checked her email, of which thirteen had piled up in the twenty minute meeting. It hadn't taken long to find that an avalanche of email was part of her job. Not looking up at a knock on her door, she yelled out, "Come in!"

Deleting a few emails as whoever was at her door approached, Lois glanced up and found Ashley walking towards her, papers in hand. Knowing that it was the young journalist's first pass at her latest assignment, Lois held out a hand and took the papers without looking up, deleting emails that she could tell from the subject lines would be a waste of her time. Grabbing a pen, she skimmed the article, then started going over it in more detail. "Don't need this," she muttered, drawing an X through a paragraph that was extraneous to the story, "and this section is full of good information, so don't bury it." Circling the area she was talking about, she drew an arrow pointing up to make sure Ashley got the point. "And work on the headline. You're still trending towards plain headlines rather than something that will catch a reader's eye." Lois wasn't sure how many people would be interested about Metropolis water treatment facilities failing inspections, but it was good to encourage her to pick up better habits. Holding the papers back out, Ashley took it from her, smiling. "Much better overall this time. You're learning."

"Vicki told me that I learned quickly when I kept my head out of the clouds and nose out of the office gossip mill. I've been doing my best to do both since I started here."

"See that you keep it up. Go make the changes, do some refining and get it back to me in half an hour. I'll make sure Derek runs it in tomorrow's edition once it's up to snuff." Looking back to her computer, Lois was about to resume her email activities when she noticed Ashley wasn't retreating out of her office. "Is there something else that we need to go over?"

Ashley clasped her hands behind her back, fidgeting a bit before saying, "I was hoping to ask you a question that isn't business related." That didn't sound encouraging. Sitting back, Lois waved for her to go ahead. "Well, I heard around the office that your birthday is on Sunday, and I was hoping that we could do something to celebrate this afternoon. I thought the office could use a little morale boost and cake might have people going into tomorrow and then the weekend with some happy thoughts about work."

Grimacing, Lois stood up. "First off, for somebody that is supposedly staying out of the office gossip mill, you confessing to hearing around the office that my birthday is this weekend is something of a contradictory point. Second, I would prefer not to turn my birthday into an office celebration. I plan on spending Sunday in Smallville, maybe having the chance to sleep in all the way to eight before Clark loses track of one of the kids and I'm awakened to open presents that are either cute but useless or really from my husband. Of course, I always find that I love the cute but useless stuff. It's amazing what can come to mean something to you when you're a parent, but that's a different topic." Coming around to the other side of her desk, she guided Ashley to the door. "Who else knows that it's my birthday this weekend?"

"Mr. White, Ron and Cat. I was sitting at my desk and putting the finishing touches on my piece when I heard Cat talking to Ron, asking if he knew what year you were born in."

"Fantastic," Lois grumbled. "If Cat knows it's almost my birthday then I'm sure everybody else does, too. Here's what I will allow: Perry, Ron, you and myself with a small cake. And Cat, I guess. She's annoying but I've known her for a long time now, though I've only liked her sporadically. And why was she asking him if he knew what year I was born in?"

"Maybe she wanted to throw you a party, too?"

"More like she wants to broadcast my age to the whole office," Lois muttered. Off Ashley's look, Lois rolled her eyes. "I'll be thirty-nine."

"Oh. That's not that bad."

"No, it isn't, but people telling me that it isn't all that bad makes it feel a lot worse. And based on your 'Oh' I think you might have thought I was older than that. I suggest you go get to work before we take the time to explore that topic."

"Yes, ma'am," Ashley said quickly, leaving Lois's office. Lois wasn't all that fond of people calling her ma'am, but at least they weren't saluting. She would occasionally run into military personnel that knew who she was and, more specifically, who her father was, who would shoot her an informal salute, which Lois found odd considering her father would frown on soldiers saluting non-military personnel, formally or informally. Next time he came to town to spend some time with his grandchildren she would have to drop that little bomb on him and watch his back go stiff at the very idea of it, let alone the practice. Always nice to have ammo for when he started getting onto her about one thing or another when it came to how she and Clark were raising Jacob, Cass and Devon. His most consistent complaint was that they gave them too much freedom, that they needed discipline, but having grown up with Sam Lane's discipline Lois wasn't about to subject her own children to any version of that. Until she unwittingly turned into the General when the kids were of an age to rebel she was taking a 'let children be children' approach.

But rebellion, she feared, was inevitable. The older her children got the more convinced Lois became that they would be genetically compelled to rebel. Kryptonian DNA was no match for Lois Lane's desire to question authority. Coming out of her thoughts as her phone rang, Lois grabbed it and stuck it between her ear and shoulder and she started responding to an email that actually needed her attention. "Yeah, this is Lane."

"Lois, hi! It's Vicki."

Hands coming off the keyboard, Lois smiled as she switched the phone to her other ear and relaxed back into her chair a little bit. "Hey, Vicki. To what do I owe this surprise?"

"Well, a blonde little birdie alerted me that your birthday is this weekend, so I wanted to call and wish you an early happy birthday. I thought it only fair since you called me on my birthday last Tuesday. I would call you on Sunday but I figured you would be spending it with Clark and the kids and wouldn't be looking for interruptions."

"I'm hoping that I'm not looking for interruptions, but with three children under the age of seven you can never be sure." Pausing, Lois debated about whether to ask Vicki about her pregnancy, not wanting to be another person that focused on that aspect of Vicki's life, no matter how interested she was. Deciding against it, she decided to inquire about Vicki and any pregnancy information offered would be readily accepted. "So how are you doing? Still annoyed about being thirty-eight?"

"No, not really. A little bit of that was adding another year onto my age but mostly it was just me being in a bad mood because I spent most of my birthday with as sore back. Of all the annoyances, aches and pains I'm enduring my sore back is the most consistent and most annoying. Apparently I pissed it off at some point in my life and now it's getting its revenge at a most inopportune time."

"Sadly you're in one of those times where it's going to get worse before it gets better. Admittedly it can get a lot better quickly," Lois said, remembering all the aches, pains and annoyances she had gone through when pregnant. Her big problem had been her right hip. It had been mildly bothersome during Jacob's pregnancy, more bothersome when she was pregnant with Cass and the reason she had waddled with a limp the last two months of her pregnancy with Devon. Chasing children had been tough enough when pregnant. Walking being painful had made it that much worse. "Just keep telling yourself that it's all worth it."

"Oh, I am. Come tomorrow I hit 32 weeks, which means I have eight weeks to go. 'It's all worth it' will be a mantra repeated over and over when I can't sleep, when I have terrible heartburn, when my back requires painkillers and a twenty minute massage from Jeff to go from ridiculously painful to regularly painful. I think I have just enough people telling me it will be worth it that I'll make it to the end without having a mental break of some sort, but I'm not putting money on that. And on that happy note, let me change the subject. How's Ashley doing?"

"Aside from being a ball of sunshine, even in mornings without drinking any coffee, she's working out well. I've made her my pet project while I'm stuck being managing editor and not allowed to write. I always got itchy when I was off for extended amounts of time, the only two times that happened being my second and third maternity leaves, but it turns out it's a whole lot worse when I actually have to be in the office and not write. My brain keeps screaming at me to put words on paper but there's no point." Hearing a knock on her door, Lois got up and walked over, opening it and finding an assistant holding up a couple possible layouts for the front page. She inspected each quickly before pointing to the one she liked better, before covering the mouthpiece of the phone. "Why didn't he just message me on my computer?"

"Mr. Ericson tried but said you hadn't gotten back to him in almost an hour."

Nodding, she waved him away. One of these days she was going to have to hire her own assistant so her life wouldn't be so crazy. She had tried all ready but they kept sending her idiots, which only made her have to do more work. Uncovering the mouthpiece, she sighed. "It helps that I'm usually so busy all day that I don't have time to write. Three fires an hour, every hour, plus layouts and making sure people hit deadlines is a pain in the ass. Clark and I never missed a deadline _without_ reminders. I feel like we should have been given a medal with the way I'm having to ride people."

"At least you're getting managing editor money to make up for it."

"I guess. It's only about eight percent more than I'm going to make when I get to do my actual job, so it's not like I'm rolling in money." Well, that was mostly true. Considering they had ended up getting paid the amount of money they had to pay for their house, plus that amount again, the Kent family was flush with cash right now. Lois had even been able to get Clark to break out his pry bar and open his wallet enough to pay for having a nanny rather than putting their kids in daycare, despite Lois feeling weird about having a nanny once she had actually hired one. But, while having had to warn Jacob over and over again not to use his gift for speed in front of Anne, Lois thought her competitive son was less likely to go into super speed in front of one woman rather than when playing with other kids and doing things like racing and playing other games that required running. She trusted him, but she didn't trust other children not to goad him into something. He was _her_ son, after all. "Anyway, I should let you go. I'm sure you have work to do and despite us both being under the umbrella of Wayne Media Holdings, I doubt that's a good reason to sit around and chat."

"Probably not, no."

"But, before we get back to work," Lois said, sitting back down in her chair, "how's your Intergang piece going? I know that you're supposedly not doing any work on it because you don't want to tempt fate while pregnant, and that you didn't have enough before finding out you were pregnant to publish. However, knowing you the way I think I do, I assume that there's at least something little you've been working on in regards to it."

"Oh, there is." Vicki paused and Lois frowned, checking to make sure her phone hadn't disconnected before putting it back to her ear as she heard Vicki's voice again. "Do you mind if I call you on your cell tonight? I'd like to discuss it with you, but I don't trust these phones for actual business. I only do that on my own phones."

"Good call. I always forget just how messed up Gotham City can be. I'm driving out to Smallville with the kids tonight, but we should be there by nine, so if you call me around ten they should be sleeping. Except that ten here is eleven for you." Smacking herself in the forehead, Lois couldn't believe she had forgotten about the time change. "If you're still awake then feel free to call, but if not call my personal cell anytime tomorrow. I don't think anything special will be going on that I can't spare a few minutes to consult with a fellow Wayne employee."

"Probably best I call tomorrow as I'm liable to fall asleep in seconds any time I can get comfortable these days. I'll go out for lunch, just in case my office has been bugged. Ryan arranged for the office to get swept for bugs once a month but I'm trying to convince him to talk to the money people to up it to once a week. Every time they sweep the place they find some. Anyway, I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Bye, Vicki," Lois said before hanging up. Sighing, she tossed the phone onto her desk before going back to her email, of which another six had shown up. Never in her life had she hated email so much.

* * *

><p>Covering a yawn as she walked out of the <em>Planet<em> building, Lois walked in the direction of the parking garage down the street, beyond ready to be home, despite having to drive out to Smallville. Even if Jacob was running rampant, Cass was being stubborn and Devon crying because she didn't want to go to bed once they got to Smallville, Lois thought it would be a step up from what she'd had to deal with through the work day. Her ten minute conversation with Vicki had the highlight of a day steeped in dumb questions and riding people about not missing deadlines. Either people at work were getting dumber or quality didn't mean the same thing it once had because Lois was about ready to strangle some of the people that Perry had hired. She just hoped he wasn't losing his touch and everybody else was trying to lower expectations. Seeing her favorite coffee cart a little ways ahead on the sidewalk, Lois smiled as she approached until she noticed that the usual woman that was there in the evenings, Julia, wasn't there. Instead there was a tall, skinny guy she had never seen before, day or night, whom she thought must be a new hire. She thought it strange since the same two people had worked there ever since she had come back to Metropolis, but since people occasionally needed days off she was just hopeful that the new guy made good coffee. Approaching the cart, she flashed the guy a smile as he did the same to her. "Hi. May I get an iced coffee with cinnamon?"

"Sure thing," he said as he set about making it.

Hearing her work cell start ringing in her purse, she frowned and dug it out, putting it to her ear. "What?" she said as an answer, not thrilled about having been gone five minutes and all ready getting a call.

"Hi! Is Maria there?"

"Sorry, you've got the wrong number," Lois responded, hanging up and looking back to the coffee vendor. Her drink ready, she paid him for it and thanked him before getting the straw in her mouth and sucking down a generous portion of her caffeinated delight. Tasting as good as usual, Lois was happy that she wasn't going to have to suck down bad coffee just to keep herself alert the rest of the evening. Drinking some more, she blinked a few times as she walked into the parking garage, her vision going a bit blurry. Hopefully the caffeine would kick in quickly so she didn't have to down energy drinks on the drive to Smallville. She'd rather not be jittery and trying to put children to bed. That always ended in children getting emotional because she was having trouble being patient, which would in turn upset her because she disliked upsetting her children. Best to just avoid all that and hope the coffee did the trick. Rubbing at her eyes as her vision blurred again, Lois hoped that the caffeine not only kicked in and kept her going, but that it kicked in quickly. The way she was starting to feel she doubted she would make it home awake, let alone to Smallville.

* * *

><p>Picking up his ringing cell phone, Clark checked the ID and saw that it was the house in Metropolis before putting it to his ear. "Hey, Lois. Am I safe in assuming you guys are just now leaving?"<p>

"Actually, Mr. Kent, this is Anne."

Confused, Clark sat down at the kitchen table. "Oh, hi, Anne. I saw the number and assumed it was Lois. What can I do for you?"

"Well, I wanted to ask if you've heard from Mrs. Kent. She was supposed to be home over an hour ago but she's yet to get here. Usually when she's going to be late she'll call and make sure I can stay with the children, but I haven't heard from her and I wanted to see if you had."

"No, I haven't," Clark said, standing back up. "Did you try calling the _Planet_?"

"I did and they said that she left at the usual time."

That wasn't good. That wasn't good at all. Running a hand over his face, Clark tried to think of where Lois would be, what she could be doing. She wouldn't chase a tip without letting anybody know where she was going, especially since she was barred from publishing for another two months and change. "Um, okay. Let me call Lois's sister and see if she can go over and stay with the children so you can go home for the night while I try to track Lois down. Do you mind staying another half an hour or so?"

"That'll be fine, Mr. Kent. I just wanted to make sure that I hadn't missed a message. I'll go ahead and make some dinner and get the children fed."

"Thank you, Anne. I'll have somebody over soon." Hanging up, Clark frowned as he scanned through his phonebook for Lucy's number, but couldn't get his mind off Lois disappearing. She hadn't done that in a long time, and especially not once they'd had children. Where could she have gone that she wouldn't let them know first?


	31. Chapter 31

- Chapter 31

After checking the time, Vicki made sure the file she wanted and her phone were in her purse before hoisting herself out of her chair, a distressingly difficult task these days, straightening her clothes before leaving her office and walking to Ryan's. Giving a couple quick knocks, she opened the door and stuck her head in. "I'm going to lunch."

He glanced up from some papers in his hands. "You mean you're taking lunch?"

"No, I'm actually leaving for lunch today. You don't need me to do anything before I go, do you?"

"No, we're fine," Ryan said, putting his papers down as he stood up and walked over to her. "I'm just shocked, that's all. I don't remember the last time you actually left the office for lunch. You always bring something with you so you don't miss any breaking news that might come down. This some sort of craving thing? I remember when my ex-wife had them and used to send me out to get her stuff."

"No it's not a craving thing!" Why was her every action now supposedly explained by her pregnancy? It was like nobody believed that she did anything that wasn't centered around her fetus anymore! "I'm just going out for lunch, and am under the assumption that the office won't fall apart without me for an hour. Am I right in that assumption?" Ryan rolled his eyes and nodded, waving her away as he retreated back into his office, Vicki making her way to the elevators and down to the ground floor. Exiting the building, she made a beeline for the burger joint a block down the road, somewhere she could talk freely while eating. It also helped that they made great cheeseburgers and even better onion rings. Finding it not very packed, Vicki went ahead and ordered a double cheeseburger and double order of onion rings, figuring that should cover the three hundred extra calories she was supposed to eat daily for the next ten to twelve days. Sitting down at a table to wait for her food, as she didn't want to navigate trying to sit in a booth, Vicki pulled out the file she had brought with her, the research she had done and information she had gathered about Intergang in Gotham City since her house had been burned down. She had hoped to have done a good, thorough article on their activities in the city within a few months of the loss of the house but had instead struggled to find many instances where Intergang had been involved in Gotham. There had been her house, some hits on other crime syndicates in the city and a few other, minor things that had been claimed as Intergang activity, but that was it. All the instances she could find had taken place within a six week period and had the same calling card left at them, the silver cross with an engraved 'I' on one side. According to sources both good and questionable in Gotham PD, none had been found at crime scenes since.

That had caused Vicki to dig. Much of her free time in the months before she had found out she was pregnant that hadn't been consumed by Jeff or time with Jeff's family and friends had been devoted to digging into what exactly had happened to Intergang after Lois's piece in _Weekly_ had cut off a good portion of their international arms dealings, if not all of them. It had been time consuming, going through police files she had acquired from the Gotham PD and Metropolis PD that might have a connection to Intergang, but their activity level had been at a minimum both before the attack on her house and after the cessation of their dealings in Gotham. Either they had gained a foothold and gone underground, which was something very unlikely to happen, or Tobias Whale had decided that he didn't want competition and had expelled Intergang. Considering how bloody something like that could get, based on previous evidence, and how normal, meaning far too high, violence levels in Gotham had been, Vicki highly doubted that was what had happened.

Looking up as she heard footsteps approaching, Vicki smiled as an older woman carried her food over, placing it on the table along with a glass of ice water and the check before leaving to go back behind the counter. Grabbing an onion ring, she tore it in half and stuffed one part into her mouth, delighting in the flavor before consuming the other half and using a couple of them to top her burger, taking a bite of that and having to hold before from moaning in pleasure. One thing she would say for pregnancy was somehow food had become more enjoyable. She had to eat more, but at least her body made it worth it.

Snapping out of her food induced haze, she went back to her review of the information before talking to Lois so she wasn't searching through, trying to give her information out of order and then forgetting something, too. Her search had come to a halt for a couple weeks when she had finished her look into Intergang's activities because she hadn't been able to figure out what was going on. Why would they come to Gotham for six weeks only to disappear again, this time not showing up in either Gotham _or_ Metropolis? She had gone so far as to researching other cities to see if Intergang had showed up there but there had been no traces anywhere. It was like they had ceased to exist, at least as a functioning crime organization. It hadn't exactly been their M.O. to lay low or not claim credit for something that they had done, especially if it had been big and worth claiming credit for. Demolishing another onion ring, Vicki flipped to the next page, finding the information she had gathered on Intergang from before Lois's piece, from before the bombings, even, to see if there had been a quiet period in its history. Dating back to when Morgan Edge had been running things, back when Vicki had been in high school, Intergang hadn't been overt but they had been a well known presence in Metropolis for decades. Even after Bruno Mannheim had disappeared, presumed dead after the battle in which Superman had repelled the alien Darkseid, things had mostly run the same for Intergang. She had spent a month trying to figure out what would make them go quiet, even when their income and numbers were reduced, when other major events hadn't been able to derail them. The _Weekly_ piece had hurt them, but it hadn't killed them, much as the world would have been a better place had it accomplished such a thing.

After that her research had been derailed because she an Jeff had succeeded in making a baby, and she had decided to slow things down during her pregnancy, to focus on herself and not obsess over something else to the point that she only half noticed her own pregnancy, an action she thought herself entirely capable of when she got lost in an investigation. And she had stuck to her word for the most part, focusing on her assigned work for the _Gazette_ and spending almost every second of free time in the past eight months diving into the experience of pregnancy. But sometimes she hadn't been able to help herself, and had decided that she would still do a little research now and then so she would have something in her life that wasn't baby related, to make sure that she didn't get to the point where she felt like she was drowning in baby information so often. It had helped. The occasional evening of research and Sunday of information gathering had been good for her state of mind when she had needed an escape not so much from the baby, which was obviously inescapable, but from the glut of information and total focus by others on her what her uterus was doing. There were a couple times that she thought that if she heard one more person talk about the joy of pregnancy and miracle of birth she might throw things. Pregnancy a joy? There were good parts, sure, and parts that sucked less than others, but her organs were getting cramped, not to mention getting abused when her son or daughter decided to stretch out, and those were just two of the innumerable less joyous bits. And the _miracle_ of birth? Having watched videos and had it described to her in egregious detail by some of the women in the group, Vicki didn't think it counted as a miracle. No, miracle was a misnomer. When something that painful, bloody and gross happened on a daily basis in every country on Earth, it wasn't a miracle, it was simply an occurrence. The occurrence of birth.

Calming herself down because she felt herself getting worked up over that nonsense again, Vicki wiped her mouth off with a napkin, having polished off her food before taking another drink of her water and going back to her papers. Once she had put the quiet period of Intergang activity to the side, Vicki had decided to focus on the fire that had taken down her house. The report had classified it as arson, and they had determined that the accelerant had most likely been ethyl alcohol used at multiple points around the house for it to have gone up so quickly. With that information, Vicki had gone back and researched arson fires in Metropolis, cross referencing ethyl alcohol involvement with Intergang. She had come up with a list of residences and warehouses that fit the description, researching each. But it had been when reading the arson report on one particular house that something had tickled the back of her mind, a man saying his house had burned down because somebody had tossed Molotov Cocktails in through the windows. That had been what Lois had experienced when her house had been burned down, but there hadn't been an Intergang calling card left at the scene for investigators so it hadn't come up in her search. After acquiring the report on the fire at the Kent household, Vicki had been struck by how similar it read to the report on the house she and Jeff had lost. Either the same person had done it or the people that had burned down Lois's house had been copying the other guy. That, or it was a huge coincidence. Vicki had been unwilling to accept that as a possibility, but in her limited research time in the weeks since she had come to the conclusion, she had been unable to find any concrete linking evidence. The only connection was that they were very, very similar. Had there been anything more than that she would have approached Lois right away, but since the evidence barely qualified as circumstantial Vicki didn't want to give her information that could ultimately prove to be happenstance.

However, when Lois had asked about her investigation the day before, Vicki had thought it a good idea to tell her, as two great journalists working on the problem had to be better than one great, extremely-distracted-by-the-baby-in-her-stomach journalist. She knew the other was a great, extremely-distracted-by-her-three-children journalist, but since she might be the best journalist in the country, and was one of the best in the world before hitting forty, Vicki assumed Lois could handle another investigation. Pulling her phone out of her purse, Vicki scrolled to Lois's name in her contacts and called her cell, deciding there was no time like the present to have a truly private conversation about how their houses might have been burned down by the same person or people. As the phone rang a few times, Vicki ran her finger over the plate her onion rings had been on, collecting a few crumbs that she promptly sucked off the end of her finger as she heard somebody answer the phone, but not hearing the voice she had expected. Instead of Lois she seemed to have gotten Clark. "Clark, hey. It's Vicki. I called Lois's personal cell, right?"

"Yeah, you did," he said quietly. "I have her phone right now because Lois is missing."

"What?" Vicki asked, no longer focused on what crumbs she could get from her lunch. "She's missing? What happened?"

"We don't know. Lois never got home after work last night. My sister-in-law stayed with the kids before bringing them out to the farm. She took my keys back to Metropolis with her after we got word from somebody at the _Daily Planet_ that Lois's car was still in the parking garage, her purse inside. There was even a mostly empty coffee cup in one of the cup holders, which must have been from last night since Lois would never leave any coffee undrunk in the morning. I had Lucy grab Lois's cell phones but leave everything else, just in case she was grabbed and the kidnappers try to get in touch with us."

"Oh my God, Clark, I'm so sorry," Vicki said, covering her mouth with a hand. "Is there anything I can do to help, anything you need? I'd be happy to come out to Metropolis for a few days if there is."

"No, please don't, Vicki. We've just now been able to get the police involved, and they're only getting into an investigation this early because of Lois's history of getting kidnapped and me begging Captain Sawyer over the phone to start looking for her. There's really nothing for you to get involved in." Clark went quiet for a moment and Vicki started digging in her purse for her wallet, dropping some money on the table for the food before getting up and walking out, heading back towards the office. "Um, should she show up and be okay, having gotten lost in an investigation or something like that, is there a message you would like me to pass on to her?"

"It's nothing that can't wait, Clark. I just have a theory about who burned down your house on the day of the bombings, but it can wait until Lois is found."

"No, please," Clark said, his voice a little stronger than it had been. "I'd be happy to hear whatever it is you've uncovered. It'll be nice to have a momentary distraction while the kids are occupied with my mom." Sighing, Vicki launched into her explanation of what she had uncovered and what information she had and why she hadn't approached them with her information weeks earlier when she had first come to the theory. "That's definitely suspicious," Clark finally said in response to everything she had told him. "You're right that there's nothing concrete and that it could be a coincidence, but in my experience that isn't usually the case."

"In mine either," Vicki responded as she exited the elevator onto Jeff's floor of the _Gazette._ "I wanted to tell Lois, to see if she had ideas on where I could look, or even where she could look, to see if your house being burned down is related to all these others that are the same except for the identifying calling card left behind to indicate Intergang was responsible."

"The question I would pose is, Why would Intergang go to Gotham, and only for only six weeks? What if it's not about being in a new city, but drawing attention from where they were?"

Getting to the door of Jeff's office, Vicki stopped with her hand on the doorknob. "You think that they were going for crime syndicate sleight of hand? That they wanted people to look over here while they were doing something over there?"

"Maybe. It's as good a guess as I have at the moment."

Hearing the weariness in Clark's voice, Vicki leaned against the door, realizing that he was thinking about Lois and that she was drawing his attention away from trying to find her. "I'm going to let you go, Clark. Focus on finding Lois and taking care of your kids. When you find her, because you will, let her know that I'm glad she's okay and wish her a happy birthday for me come Sunday."

"Thank you, Vicki. Good luck with your research."

"Bye," Vicki said quietly, pulling the phone away from her ear and dropping it in her purse as she closed her eyes. Knocking on the door, she heard Jeff say come in before she walked in and dropped her purse next to the door, the tears that she had been holding back since first hearing Lois was missing dangerously close to escaping. When Jeff looked up and saw her he immediately looked concerned.

"What's wrong?" he asked, getting up from his desk and walking around to her.

"Lois... Lois is missing..." That was all Vicki managed to get out before the damn burst and she dissolved into a weeping mess, her tears and smeared makeup leaving disgusting looking streaks on Jeff's clothes while over the course of her cry until she was finally able to collect herself, reveling in the safety she felt in Jeff's arms for just a second longer than she needed to before pulling away and noticing just how much she had messed up his clothes. "Sorry," she said through a sniffle as she pulled some tissues out of her purse, this not being the first time bad news had set her off like this. "Do you want me to run home and get you a fresh suit?"

"No need to worry about me," he said with a small smile, turning her slowly to show that there was a second suit hanging on the back of his door. "I started leaving a second suit here for situations like these. I've known for months now that my office is a safe haven when you're trying to avoid an emotional event in front of coworkers, and that you like to rest your head against my chest and shoulder. I thought it only prudent to be prepared because I like that you come to me and don't want to discourage that in any way." He leaned down and kissed her before pulling her into another hug, her face this time on the other side of his chest as they maneuvered around her protruding belly.

"I love you," Vicki said against his chest, unable to think of a better way to respond.

"I love you, too, Vicki. I know it doesn't help, but don't worry. They'll find Lois, her head lost in a story, just like you get sometimes. You don't marry a journalist without knowing that about her." Smiling when she felt his hand come to rest on her stomach, Vicki put hers on top of his, guiding it to where she could feel the baby kicking. "And just so you know, I'll always come find you when you get lost, wherever you are. I wouldn't know how to live my life without Vicki Vale in it anymore."

"And I wouldn't know how to live mine without Jeff Powers in it," Vicki responded. "Or our baby."

"I love that we turned you into somebody that says things like that, meaning every word despite it sounding like a bad romance novel."

"We?"

He looked down at her, quirking an eyebrow. "You think I could do that by myself? I'm pretty great, but getting you to sound like that doesn't happen without an insider helping me out, and in this instance that is a very literal insider."

"Yes, ha ha, Vicki has a baby inside her that makes her more emotional and love has softened her. Not like I haven't heard that one before." Unable to help herself, she continued. "You're lucky I'm softer and emotional or I would take you to task for it."

* * *

><p><em>It shouldn't be that difficult<em>, Clark thought of the simple act of going into a city. One should just go, without needing forethought or deep consideration. Yet as he floated high in the sky, miles above Metropolis but looking into the city with his telescopic vision, watching as people went about their business, walking and driving to where they needed to be, Clark couldn't make himself fly down, couldn't make himself go into the city where he would feel compelled to help those that needed him. Thinking about it made his hands shake, his heart beat erratic. He always felt that now, whenever he heard somebody calling for help, but it had been easier to ignore when they had lived in Connecticut. It was more difficult in Smallville, where he had grown up helping people, learning the basics of what it meant to help those around him. In Metropolis he didn't know how he would be able to tune out the voices, not after responding automatically so many times. His hands would shake and his heart beat would be erratic, but he wouldn't be able to stop himself. It felt like there was so much on the line just to enter Metropolis. He had known he was taking the weight of the world onto his shoulders when he had become Superman, but he had never felt every ounce of it until people he thought he had been helping had been the ones to threaten the city. They were mad, but not the type of mad he was used to dealing with, not the type that could be explained by bad childhood experiences or maniacal tendencies. These were people that were mad at _him_, grief destroying good judgement in an attempt to place blame for the loss of a loved one when so many other loved ones had been saved. They had wanted to take away his credibility with the people of Metropolis, and had, through his capture and media manipulation of public opinion. Superman was persona non grata in Metropolis now, somebody that would theoretically be arrested for trying to help those in need. Would people even accept his help anymore?

But if they found out, if the people who had captured him became aware of his presence in Metropolis, they would detonate bombs again. He had no doubt that they would follow through on that threat, not after what he had endured, not after the way people had taken out their anger on him for not saving husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters. Clark had seen grief overwhelm people before, had known what it made people capable of when they didn't move past the hurt and loss, but until then he hadn't experienced the full fury of it. Now he was fully aware of what lengths a grief stricken mind would go to when trying to get justice for the person they had lost from those they blamed. What a difference not making _every single save_ could make. He knew, in his head, that he wouldn't always make every save, but that had never stopped him from trying, from pushing himself a little harder to get there that much faster. Clark had tried to explain that to them, tried to tell them that he knew how much it hurt to lose people, how much it hurt him when he couldn't get there in time, but it hadn't helped. In their minds nobody could care as much as they did that somebody had died, and Clark knew that his grief was different than theirs, but it hurt every time. He ached when he didn't get there in time. But as much as it hurt, as much as it made him want to howl, he got to go home to his family. He would hold his children, hugging them and putting them to bed. He got to hold his wife, to tell Lois that he loved her and was able to keep doing what he did because he knew she was there waiting for him.

His captors didn't have that. He remembered most of their loved ones, those that had bothered to give him a name. That was always the moment they would pause and wonder if they were doing the right thing, when Superman remembered the person they had lost. But then it slammed home again, that their loved one had been one of the few Superman couldn't get to and it was like the wound was reopened, making the grief fresh and their anger more intense. That reaction had made him rethink telling them that he remembered those who had died, but he had always told them. No matter what, he had always wanted them to know that the people they had lost hadn't been statistics. They were people that he would remember, names that would always stay with him.

Sucking in a deep breath, Clark took off towards earth, flying down through buildings and past people in the blink of an eye before landing in an alley between buildings near the _Planet_, an alley that had once been a regular landing place for him. The familiarity of the experience struck him immediately as he looked around, nervous energy at being back in Metropolis causing him to ball his left hand into a fist and stuff it into his pocket so he wasn't tapping his fingers against his side and wearing a holes in his jeans. He used his right hand to put on his glasses, hunching as he walked out of the alley, trying to slow his breathing and calm his spiking anxiety. The city didn't look different, not around the _Planet_, but he knew that it wouldn't, that none of the bombs had gone off in the immediate area. It _felt_ different, though. There was a tenseness in the air, adding to the tenseness he felt in himself. The people walking by him as he turned towards the _Planet_ building all looked tense, like they didn't know what was about to happen but knew it was going to be bad.

It didn't take long to get to his destination, only having to traverse a little more than a block, but it felt like it took as long as any time he had ever made that walk. Out of habit as he entered the building he reached up to fix his tie, only to remember when his hand got to his neck that he wasn't wearing one, that he had a shirt button undone because he didn't have anything underneath his clothes to keep hidden anymore. Lowering his hand at the strangeness of having no tie on while entering the _Planet_ building, he smiled and gave a little wave to the security guy, falling back into the character of Clark Kent, bumbling goofball, with ease. It soothed his nerves about being back in the city, that touch of familiarity, enough that he could relax his left hand and feel that he wasn't going to drum a hole in his pocket. Getting to the elevators, he was able to get into one quickly and head up to the bullpen, the trip going much faster than he remembered with no other stops to make on the way up. Stepping onto his old floor, Clark immediately noted the changes, how things weren't where they had been, though it seemed that the floor was in flux. It appeared as though some of the work stations were in the process of being moved, though Clark couldn't imagine to where with the floor looking as full as it ever had, even with the lack of weekday craziness. Adding people to the clutter might just make it impossible to move around. Nodding at the occasional passerby as he walked to Perry's office, Clark knocked on the door and waited until he heard Perry usual gruff, short answer to make it quick, his way of saying come in and the reason Lois had never bothered to knock. She had liked to claim that as the reason she didn't bother to knock, at least, that she was making things quick, but both Clark and Perry had known that wasn't the truth. Lois was Lois, both an excuse and an explanation at once. Walking into the office, Clark closed the door as Perry spotted him, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise as he stood up. "Clark! I didn't think I'd be seeing you in town. Have you heard anything about Lois yet?"

"No, nothing," Clark said, sitting down as Perry pointed to a chair. "As far as being back in the city... my nerves aren't doing too great right now, but I have to try to find my wife, especially on her birthday. She did the same for me after the bombings. Based on the number of times she's been in situations like these I figured I would have opportunities to repay her for helping to find me, but that doesn't mean I wanted to have to take advantage of them."

"No, nobody would think that you did. And this is one of the situations Lois gets into that I hate, the kind where she didn't get herself into trouble by going after a story where she shouldn't. When she does that there's at least some evidence as to what she was looking into." Perry shook his head, sitting back in his chair. "I wish we at least had Superman around to try and find her like he always used to. Without him around I'm about as scared for her as I've ever been."

"Yeah," Clark said, looking down at the floor, "me too." Looking up to ask Perry if he knew anybody that might know anything, even the weakest of details, Clark's hearing suddenly tuned in to a voice in the distance.

"_Why is somebody on that ledge? Oh, God, she's about to fall!"_

Blinking, Clark knew he had to go. He couldn't let a woman fall to her death. "Uh, Perry, I'll be back in a couple minutes. I think I left my phone in my car and I don't want to miss a call." Not waiting for a response, Clark jogged out of Perry's office and into the stairwell, speed up to the roof and tossing his glasses and jacket aside before flying off the roof, pushing himself towards the voice he had heard. Seeing a body falling halfway across the city, he pushed his speed a little more, catching whoever it was about thirty feet off the ground, not going to normal speed like he usually would because he didn't have on his suit. Instead he stayed in super speed until he was in an alley close to Metropolis General hospital, which was the first time he took a second to inspect who he had caught.

It was a woman, which was easy enough to tell; even on top of a building people on the ground had seen that. She had a hood tied over her head so he couldn't see a face, not bothering to x-ray and see one when he would just be dropping her off at the hospital. That was when he felt liquid on his hand, and looking down, saw that blood was coming out of a gunshot wound in her stomach. Though he had only been inspecting her for a second he had to hold back from cursing himself. He was rusty if he wasn't noticing a gunshot wound right away. Jogging out of the alley with his cargo in tow, he covered the ground quickly and was approaching the hospital when the world went into slow motion as his hearing picked up a deep, resonating boom emanating from inside the hospital a millisecond before windows began bursting outward, fire pouring out from the inside. Ducking down and covering the woman with his body, he looked back as the explosion quickly engulfed the area before the flames turned skyward and burned out, debris, glass and dust beginning to shower down around him.

Standing back up, Clark stared in horror at the scene before him. It had been a test. They had thrown a woman off a building as a test to see if he was back in the city. But that meant... if it was a test, they would use the one woman Superman always found a way to save. Kneeling back down, Clark tore the hood off the woman only to find a very pale, unconscious Lois, her breathing shallow. "Oh, God..." Clark uttered quietly, wide eyed.


	32. Chapter 32

- Chapter 32

Clark knew he was taking too long staring at Lois, taking too long to get back into action, but her lying on the ground, bleeding from a gunshot wound as the world around them was exploding, was like getting punched by somebody holding kryptonite. They had tested him, waiting a little while after Lois had come back to Metropolis before grabbing her. It was dumb luck that he had even been there to catch her. Had they been doing this since he was released, throwing people off buildings to see if he was back in the city? Killing people one at a time to see if they had to follow through on their threat of mass murder? It was madness in an attempt to see how much more madness they needed to create, something Clark should have been in the city to stop so much sooner, no matter what they had threatened. That was when everything he should have known became crystal clear.

Lois had been right. Everybody had been right. The world needed Superman. Metropolis was a perfect example of what happened when people lost hope. He was a perfect example of what happened when a person lost hope. He had lost himself, lost his way. Lois had defended him to the others when he had told them he was done, but Clark had known that she didn't agree with his decision. That it had taken her being kidnaped to get him to face his fears was shameful. They were always going to detonate bombs in the city again. It was a matter of time, not a matter of his staying away. Now he had to stand up and do something.

Sucking in a deep breath, Clark turned and released it at the hospital, blowing dust as debris away from him and Lois and putting out the flames that engulfed portions of the hospital. It wasn't enough, not by a longshot, as he could hear voices crying out for help only a moment after the bomb had gone off, but it would at least save some lives that hadn't been lost yet. Gently scooping Lois into his arms, Clark took off into the air at a high speed, not wanting to put off for another second getting Lois the medical care she needed. He was in Smallville within a the blink of an eye, not wanting to take Lois to a Metropolis hospital in case there was a second round of bombs. Landing in a closed off spot on the side of the Medical Center, he ran the rest of the way, getting into the hospital as he started calling out for help. "Over here! She's been shot!"

Two nurses and a doctor ran to him as he placed her on an empty gurney that had been pushed against a wall before stepping away to let them do their work. "What happened?" the doctor asked, not sparing him a glance as she started cutting open Lois's shirt to get a better view of the gunshot wound.

"I don't know. Her name's Lois Lane. I found her near my family farm and drove her here as fast as I could. I would have called an ambulance but I didn't know if that would be any faster and I knew she needed help right away." Part lie, part truth. Better than making everything up, which in his experience could be dicey.

"Was she ever conscious?" Clark shook his head as they started taking her to the back, the doctor turning to face him. "We'll do our best to help her. She's in shock and has lost a lot of blood, but we're going to everything in our power. Go to the front desk and fill out the paperwork. Somebody will let you know when we have an idea of what needs to be done."

The doctor turned and jogged back to where they had rolled Lois, Clark closing his eyes and taking a second to try and collect himself before walking to the front desk. Taking the paperwork from the nurse, he couldn't help but fill it out as quickly as he could, placing it back down on the counter before looking back at the nurse. He wanted to stay, to listen and make sure she was okay, but he couldn't let Metropolis go through this without Superman again. Days like this were when they needed him most, especially considering they had done it because he had saved Lois. God, he hoped he had saved Lois. "I have to go move my truck and make sure my children okay. I'm going to try to come back and wait, but if I can't somebody will be here for her. If the doctor has any questions, she can try my cell or this number," he said as he quickly wrote the phone number for the farm on the top of the forms. "Please, just... just save her." Running out of the ER, Clark took off as soon as he had a spot to do so without being visible to anybody that happened to be looking. Arriving at the farm, he had his tights on and was back flying towards Metropolis only a second later, putting in his Justice League earpiece as he did so and tapping it to turn it on. He didn't plan on contacting them yet, as he didn't know what reaction would be to a 'vigilante' trying to help people, but wasn't going to let people die because of the reaction to his not being in the city the last time, even if it meant having to surrender to authorities after he had found any and all survivors at bombing sites. It would be taking him away from his family again if they decided to prosecute him for breaking the law, but at least this time being away from his family would mean something.

Tuning his hearing in to Lois's weak heartbeat, Clark stopped above Metropolis, surveying the areas that were smoking quickly determining which place needed his help first. Based on what he could see they had targeted hospitals and residences, focusing on mass casualties and leaving nowhere for those casualties to be treated rather than trying to shut the city down. They wanted him to know that they were targeting people this time, the people he had always worked to save, not just the city. They wanted him to feel every death like it was on his head. Clenching his teeth, Clark streaked towards the largest site, an apartment high rise whose support system was so devastated it was beginning to collapse. Before it had a chance to fall further he had people away from the area, putting them in Centennial Park before flying back to the building. He wouldn't be able to stop the building from falling but scanning floor by floor he kept finding survivors, pulling them out by groups until he had gotten as many people out as he could before the building crashed into the ground. Flying in quick circles around the dust and debris, Clark shot it up into the atmosphere, sucked up like it had been caught in a tornado.

Lois's heartbeat back in his ear, Clark x-rayed the rubble for any more survivors, and finding none, took off to the next site.

* * *

><p>Glancing at Vicki, Jeff tried to decide if he was better off saying he was sorry or saying nothing, as something had made her angry but he had no idea what it was. Wild swings in Vicki's emotions were something he had been able to avoid for the most part, with an occasional spell where there was an overreaction to a small thing or her having a bad day when it came to her body image. Something like this, where he had pissed her off for a reason he was totally unaware of, had been rare, which had make him thankful. But whatever it was he had said, done or possibly even thought, had stuck in her mind to the point where she had declared that she was going to use the drive to Beth's house as a cooling off period so there wasn't a blow up in front of Jenny and Liv. This had been a surprising declaration as he hadn't been aware that they were fighting before the car ride. There hadn't been any warning. She hadn't been in a bad mood all day, or had her body do anything particularly egregious that he was aware of. In fact, it had been a good day! Vicki had woken him up that morning by making him watch as their baby's foot looked like it was trying to kick through her stomach, which was one of the strangest and coolest things he had ever seen. Somehow that had led to morning sex, something Vicki hadn't even wanted to think about in weeks, and after that it had been a normal day at home, with them watching some television before Jeff had run to the office to look over some papers that hadn't gotten to delivered until the day before, when they had been deep in the throes of putting together baby stuff and figuring out if there was more stuff that they needed. Considering the number of things they had all ready acquired and the stuff Beth had told them not to buy because they would probably get it through Vicki's baby shower, he had been shocked to find that there was, in fact, more stuff to get. Had he known how lucrative a business baby items were, he might have gotten into that rather than practicing law.<p>

Exiting the highway and turning into their future subdivision, Jeff guided the car through the streets necessary to get to the construction site of their new home, which to his untrained eye appeared to be coming along nicely. It was supposed to be ready in about two months, but given that they had gone into it expecting a move in date closer to the end of the year, he was sure that there was a lot more to do. It was easy to tell that it was going to be big, just by sitting in front of it, but he liked that they were going to have a lot of space. Vicki had left most of it up to him, with input on little things, like wanting a lot of natural light in the house. The one room he had totally left up to her was the master bath. That had ended up with a large walk-in shower with multiple shower heads and a huge, jacuzzi style bathtub in which one could soak luxuriously. He thought she had chosen well, as it reflected how nice of a house they had designed as a whole. The one thing he was sure of was that they had definitely erred on the side of too much space rather than too little. Shifting the car into park after pulling up to the curb in front of their in-progress house, Jeff looked through Vicki's passenger window to see if he could tell if anything more had been done in the eight days since they had last stopped by, but nothing stood out. Choosing instead to focus on Vicki, he hesitantly reached out and put his hand on hers. When she didn't pull away, he thought that a good sign, taking the opportunity to curl his fingers in between hers. That was when he noticed that she didn't have her wedding ring on. He was about to comment on it when he saw it dangling from a chain around her neck and thought better of commenting, assuming that the same swelling that was afflicting her feet and ankles was taking its toll on her fingers. He also knew better than to ask her how she was doing, as it seemed only their female friends were getting to do that anymore because they had all gone through what Vicki was currently experiencing. Instead, he decided he would try something safe, or at least the safest thing he could think of. How it actually played to his audience was another matter entirely. "Thank you, Vicki."

She turned and looked at him, confusion written all over her face. "I have no idea why I'm being thanked, and that doesn't sit well with me."

Jeff held up a finger, hoping to forestall her potential growth of annoyance. He hadn't really thought about what would follow the thank you, but something popped to mind that he hoped would go over well. "It occurs to me that throughout your pregnancy I have been telling you that I love you, and telling the baby that I love him, her or it, but I have never properly thanked you. I doubt I have a solid idea of how much control you've lost over your body, how many things you're putting yourself through to bring our son or daughter into the world, but what I do know is that you've handled it with as much grace and strength as anybody could. For that, for allowing me to be the person to share this experience with you, and just for being you, I say thank you, Vicki Vale Powers, and I love you." It was over the top, he knew, the kind of dialogue heard in bad romantic movies, but with any luck that would only help his case. Vicki _loved_ making fun of how people spoke in romance films, of tearing apart how unrealistic the dialogue was in most cases.

"You sound ridiculous," she said, but she said it with a smile, and at that Jeff finally allowed himself to crack a smile, too. She looked away and shook her head. "I appreciate that, though. It's strange, having so little control over what my body does and when. But you don't have to thank me for having a baby with you. The only reason you would have had to do that is if I had decided I didn't want children but had decided to have one with you anyway. You're lucky I was looking for an excuse to have my boobs leak colostrum, which is just an outstanding thing to find before taking a shower, by the way."

"I always knew there was more to it than just you thinking we would be good parents to an amazing child." Deciding to tempt fate, Jeff went ahead with an inquiry as to what it was, exactly, that he demanded a silent car ride. "Not to push my luck, but what was it I did that warranted us not speaking for the last twenty minutes? I really have no clue as what I said, did or even considered that would have offended you."

"You said I have sexy cankles," Vicki mumbled, causing Jeff to grimace.

"I said that?"

"In your defense, I was the one who brought it up. I had tipped the full length mirror to see how my feet were looking but I caught sight of where my ankles used to be, where calf now turns into foot because of swelling. I bemoaned the fact that I now have cankles, and I don't think you were even thinking about what you said because it was just a passing remark that I have sexy cankles." Vicki shrugged, half smiling at him. "I know you were just trying to make me feel better the way you always do, but it got in my head for some reason, that you had purposely given me some backhanded compliment. I know it wasn't that, of course. Just my brain being extra sensitive as I slowly lose my mind."

"You're allowed all the sensitivity you want. I just wanted to make sure I hadn't said something stupid, though I guess it turns out that I did say something stupid, and for that, I apologize profusely." Pulling her hand over, he started slobbering kisses all over the back of it until she pulled it away as she laughed. "But seriously? You are sexy as hell. I know you don't see it or feel it, but you really are."

"I'm a bloated mess that's retaining water like a camel and waddling."

"You're a mother cradling her baby in her womb."

"I've gained thirty pounds and now I'm going to start packing on another pound per week, half of which goes to the baby, because as it fattens up, so do I, apparently."

"Your body is putting all its energy into ensuring that our son or daughter arrives healthy and pissed off that its living space got so cramped."

"The skin over my stomach itches like crazy, I've got stretch marks on my hips and have something coming out of my vagina called leukorrhea, which is apparently normal and not something that _anybody_ warns you about."

"I'll be happy to put lotion on your stomach for you," Jeff said, knowing that Vicki knew his offer wasn't totally without it's pleasures for him, but he continued anyway. "Stretch marks are just the way your body reminds you that you that you're all ready totally in love with somebody that isn't even born yet. Really, they should be called love marks. And the leukorrhea... well, there's nothing I can do about that one but hope it isn't too bothersome."

Vicki turned and stared at him, looking like she half wanted to glare and half wanted to grin. "I'm 'a mother cradling a baby in her womb?'" she asked, sounding incredulous. "And love marks? You are seriously over the top today with the flowery language today."

Jeff shrugged, flashing her a quick grin before throwing the car into drive and pulling away from the curb. "It's a calculated move on my part. I know how that kind of talk drives you nuts, and I figured that me spouting things that, while true, are also totally goofy would put you in a better mood. You do enjoy ripping apart over the top dialogue."

"See, it's things like that why we work. I made a very good decision, marrying you." He could see her look over at him out of the corner of his eye as he drove, smiling. "I love you, by the way. And I like you, too. Very underrated factor in relationships, liking the person you love. Oh, and thank _you_, too, for putting up with me when I get irrationally annoyed about being called sexy the wrong way."

"I am kind of a monster in that regard." Coming to a stop sign, Jeff took a second to reach over an squeeze her leg before turning. "Seriously, we're having a baby together. Be as crazy as you need to be. Though, in the future, if you could be more clear about why we're fighting, or at least let me know that we're having a fight, I would appreciate it."

"I'll take that into consideration and ow," she muttered. "For somebody that is using my body as a place to come into existence, you would think this baby would be more respectful of my organs and all the stress they're going through for him or her."

"Kids today," Jeff said with a grin as they turned onto Beth's street. "No respect for their elders and mother's organs. Though I have heard from some that babies kicking your organs is like practice for having an unruly teenager."

"Let's hope that it's metaphorical practice, and thank you for helping me keep my mind off of Lois."

"Yes, let's, and you're welcome," Jeff said as he pulled up in front of Beth's house. Jumping out of the car, he walked around and opened Vicki's door for her, offering a hand to help her out, knowing that with each passing week getting up and down into a seated position was more and more work for her. They were halfway to the front door when it opened, Beth emerging but looking less happy to see them than she did grim. "What's wrong?" he asked as they continued up to meet her at the door.

"Metropolis was bombed again," Beth said quietly, glancing back over her shoulder.

Jeff immediately looked down at Vicki, who was wide eyed and pulling her phone out of her purse. "Damn it," she said, "three missed calls from Ryan. I'm going to call him back, see what he needs me to do."

They walked into the house, Vicki stepping to the side with her phone to her ear as Jeff followed Beth to where Chuck was sitting and watching the news coverage. "Again, breaking news out of Metropolis this afternoon as within the last half-hour bombs were detonated in the city of Metropolis. It is unknown how many were detonated, but reports are coming in that suggest more than the twelve that went off just over two years ago, on July 22nd, 2023. Also accompanying those reports are eyewitnesses claiming they've seen Superman in the city, trying to get as many people out of bombing sites as he can. We'll have more for you momentarily."

"Jesus Christ," Beth muttered, sitting down on the couch next to Chuck. Jeff couldn't help sighing as he closed his eyes and ran a hand over his face. He couldn't imagine what the people of Metropolis were going through, having to endure something like this happening again. Gotham City had its troubles, its madmen and more than its fair share of thugs and lowlifes, but he couldn't imagine something on the scale of the city being bombed happening. It was unthinkable that it could happen once, let alone a second time. Feeling a hand on his back, he turned and found Vicki.

"I have to go in. Bombs, Superman..." She shrugged. "Ryan's sending me to Metropolis since I was there and covered it the last time this happened. He wants to take advantage of having somebody on the ground that's familiar with the last bombings."

"Whoa," Jeff said, taken by surprise that Vicki would suggest traveling to Metropolis. "Is that smart? I know this is going to sound a little old fashioned, but I don't like the idea of my pregnant wife going into what basically amounts to a war zone. I know you do what it takes to get the story, but this seems like a little much. And should you even be flying at this stage of your pregnancy?"

"I'm fine to fly until thirty-six weeks, so that's not a factor. Also, I knew you would be worried and less than fond of the idea of me going to Metropolis, so I told Ryan I wouldn't go unless you went to Metropolis with me for my peace of mind. He didn't like that I was using my experience with the last bombing as leverage but he acquiesced. The Wayne Enterprises corporate jet is waiting for us at a private airfield and there will be a rental car waiting for us when we land in Wichita."

"You really told him you wouldn't go without me?" Jeff asked. "I figured you'd be all gung ho about the story and just hit the road."

"I'm eight months pregnant. Do you really think I'm going to run into a city that has just been bombed, _again_, without taking somebody along as a precaution?" Jeff could only shrug, not wanting to admit that he had been thinking that exact thing. Based on what she had told him about her career and what he knew about her as a person, it didn't seem _that_ far fetched that she wouldn't take somebody with her. Vicki rolled her eyes and smacked him in the chest with the back of her hand as a response to his shrug, hard enough that he had to fight the urge to rub where she had hit him. "You're an idiot," she said quietly. "Lucky for you, you're my idiot." Stepping around him, Jeff turned as she spoke to Beth and Chuck. "Guys, I'm sorry but we have to go. My editor is sending me to Metropolis and I'm dragging Jeff with me so he doesn't spend the next few days doing nothing but worrying."

"No, of course," Beth said, getting up and hugging Vicki before pulling him into a hug. "Keep her safe," he heard her whisper, "and my niece or nephew, too."

"I will," he said as he let her go, giving Chuck a quick wave before jogging to catch up to Vicki, who was all ready walking out the front door. "I'm really your idiot?" he asked as he pulled his keys out of his pocket before opening her car door for her.

"You are my idiot, yes, but idiot is too strong of a word," she said, getting into the car. Walking around to the driver's side, Jeff got in and had them moving quickly, knowing that Vicki wouldn't want to waste time. "I think a better way to put it is that you're my man, weird as it is to actually say that in 2025."

"I wasn't aware the word man was synonymous with the word idiot."

"Only in good ways, of course. Idiot, in this context, is a purely loving word. I mean, how else would I tell you that I love you despite you saying something stupid if I couldn't call you an idiot?"

"I hope to never find out," Jeff said with as much of a smile as he could manage after the news they had just been informed of.

* * *

><p>X-raying what remained of one of the hospitals that had been bombed, Clark had to take his ear off of Lois's heartbeat again to find the heartbeats of those alive and trapped. The number wasn't small, at least thirty if he had counted correctly. He looked down at the paramedics on the ground, some of the only ones in the immediate area. When word had spread that he was helping and pulling survivors out of bombing sites ambulances had started following him to take casualties to any medical facility that could treat people, even the offices of general practitioners. He had relayed to the first paramedics he had come across that hospitals had been targeted and that they needed to get word out to doctors to open up any offices they could so victims had somewhere to go and get treatment, but it had only been an hour since the bombs had gone off so he wasn't sure where people were being taken. He had yet to go anywhere but bombing sites as he hadn't had a moment to spare. Floating down slowly, Clark began moving pieces of the building at super speed, being careful not to cause a collapse of what was still standing but not wanting to waste time by being overly cautious. This was only his third bombing site, the third largest that he had been able to tell. The first two had been residential buildings and the number of people killed had been staggering. It was a Sunday afternoon on a hot August day so people probably hadn't had anywhere to be but home. He had been extremely thankful that the second building hadn't collapsed until after he had gotten everybody alive out and safely to Centennial Park, which after his first, speedy extraction had become a gathering point for survivors. Now tents and other coverings were starting to go up, rescue workers having decided to turn the area into a central command of sorts, too. He had yet to try and coordinate with them as he still wasn't sure if he was going to be arrested after helping people.<p>

After moving a large piece of the hospital to what was now an enormous pile of rubble not far away, Clark found bodies instead of survivors, but couldn't take time to do anything but pick them up and move them to an area not far from where he was piling rubble, being gentle so that family could claim their bodies when they were identified. It wasn't long before he came to a couple survivors, both unconscious, both appearing to be patients based on how they were dressed. Clark took them down to the paramedics, placing each on an empty gurney to be loaded into the ambulance. "Radio anybody that has offloaded and isn't all ready at another site. Tell them we have at least twenty, maybe close to thirty more survivors here. Can you fit anymore, or just those two?"

"We'll be pushing it by loading two," one of them said, a skinny man almost as tall as he was.

"Okay, then go ahead and go. I'll lay casualties in the grass just behind where we are now so they're at least on something soft. If nobody has come by the time I have all the casualties out of the area, I'll start taking them one by one to Centennial Park so that they don't get left here. Let the other medics know that it has become a gathering point and the city looks to be setting up a command center there." They both nodded before getting to work on loading the victims into their ambulance. Clark turned back to the rubble, floating back above it before getting back to the work at hand. He didn't have to remove much before he started finding large groups of bodies and survivors, having to check each one to see where he should take them. He had just finished removing a body and placing it on the ground when a police car pulled up, lights flashing as two occupants stepped out. "Officers, if you're here to arrest me I'll turn myself in later," Clark said, not wanting to waste time on this.

They both looked at each other before shaking their heads. "No, we're not here for that, Superman. The mayor has cops all over the city looking for you, wanting to ask for you help in contacting the Justice League. He wanted us to tell you that he's giving blanket immunity from the Vigilante Law during this crisis."

Clark had to hold back from making a sarcastic comment about how generous of the Mayor that was, instead just nodding before reaching up and tapping the Justice League communicator he had in his ear. "Superman to Justice League headquarters."

"This is Martian Manhunter. We hear you, Superman," the familiar voice said. "When your communicator came online a general alerted was sounded. You're also speaking with Wonder Woman, Flash, Batman and Aquaman."

"An unknown number of bombs went off in Metropolis about an hour ago almost immediately after I caught Lois Lane Kent when she had been thrown off a building. She's currently in surgery in at Smallville Medical Center. I alerted Mr. Kent of her status and location on my way back to Metropolis. I've been informed by two police officers that blanket immunity has been given in regards to the Vigilante Law by the Mayor and they request any and all Justice League help that can be given."

"Understood. We'll keep eyes on Mrs. Kent and her children and send teams to Metropolis right away."

Tapping his ear piece to end the communication, Clark turned back to the two police officers. "How big is your back seat?" he asked, looking through them to see their car. They both looked confused, so Clark explained further despite not feeling he had time. "We need to get casualties transported to where they can get medical help but there aren't enough ambulances. Police cars are going to have to start filling in, even if we're just laying victims in the backseat before they're driven to help. Now, how big is your backseat?"

"We can fit one laying down in the back unless you want to pile people on top of each other."

"Not ideal. You both have basic medical training, right?" They nodded, allowing Clark to turn back and look at the pile of rubble again. "Put somebody in the front seat, too, as one of you can stay and stay with those who aren't taken first and make sure their conditions don't worsen. Whoever stays, if you find somebody that isn't breathing, yell for me and I'll get them to medical care ASAP." Clark turned and nodded to each. "Radio your fellow officers and tell them that we need to use their cars to transport casualties, not just here but at all bombing sites. Otherwise people that need immediate care won't be getting it. I need to get back to pulling people out. Remember, take the most serious first."

"How do we know who's in worst shape?" one of the asked as Clark started floating.

"Use your best judgement," he answered with a shake of his head. "That's all any of us can do right now."


	33. Chapter 33

- Chapter 33

Staring out the window of the car as Jeff drove them into the city, Vicki couldn't help remembering her first time coming to Metropolis, before she had officially started working for the _Gazette_. Who could have known that a trip to see a friend from college and get to know her kids would turn into what she wished had been a once in a lifetime event. It was also hard to imagine that she was the same person she had been back then, the same person who had told a friend that she didn't see herself getting married or having children because she had only then worked her way up to having the job she had always wanted, being a lead investigative reporter at a major newspaper. When that same person had responded by telling Vicki she shouldn't count things out that could still happen, Vicki had thought she was speaking nonsense. Little had she known how right her friend had been. It was too bad she had moved out of Metropolis in the aftermath of the bombings or she would have gone to see her, let her gloat that she had been right after all.

"So," Jeff said, breaking the silence and snapping Vicki out of her thoughts, "what's the plan? Are we going straight to bombing sites?"

"First we need to go to the _Daily Planet_. Ryan set something up with Perry White so I can borrow an office to have somewhere to work in the city. Otherwise I'm trying to type in the car or having to drive back and forth from the hotel to do my work." Looking back out the window, Vicki couldn't help but put her thoughts into words. "It's weird being back in Metropolis."

"Why's that?"

Shrugging, Vicki said, "It feels like a lifetime ago that I was here last, but it's only been two years. But it has been two of the wildest years of my life. I was just thinking about the last time I was here, how I told my friend Maureen from college that I didn't see myself ever getting married or having children. The whole reason I had come to Metropolis the last time was to see her and get to know her children a little bit. We're not nearly as close as we used to be, but it was nice to see her again, even if our visit was truncated by the bombings. She was the last person to see me blonde until now, since I'm not going to dye my hair again until after the baby is born."

Coming up to a red light, Jeff looked over at her. "Do you want to call her, see if she wants to meet up if you get a free hour sometime in the next few days? I'd love to meet her so she could revel in just how much falling in love with me changed you."

"Much as I would love to introduce Maureen to the guy that changed the way I decided to live my life," Vicki said, trying and failing to not to roll her eyes, "she moved to the west coast not long after the bombings. Her husband took a job doing PR for a tech company in northern California so she's probably trying to keep her children from becoming hippies now, who knows. I haven't had the chance to talk to her much since the bombings because, as I noted, the past two years have been pretty wild."

"New job, date Bruce Wayne, find an amazing boyfriend named Jeff Powers who ends up getting stabbed, nurse said boyfriend back to health and fall in love with him, get married, get to know his comically large group of friends, strike up a friendship with Lois Lane, get pregnant and now covering another bombing in Metropolis. That about sum it up?"

Vicki nodded, not finding anything significant that he had left out. "That does seem to cover everything, though I'd be hesitant to say it was my 'amazing' boyfriend that got stabbed considering he had been my boyfriend for all of twelve seconds when that happened." Vicki glanced over at him in time to see him return the eye roll that she had just given him. "Oh, come on! You can't be amazing if you're brand new. Amazing has to be earned. You were still a fairly new experience back then and we were both covering up some of our crazy despite neither of us initially looking for a long term relationship. Now that all our crazy has been laid bare, I would say you are absolutely an amazing husband."

"And you are an amazing wife," Jeff responded before he frowned. "Is it strange how often we sing each others praises? I know it hasn't been a year and a half yet, but I was led to believe that marriage is supposed to be more difficult than this."

"Yeah, I've heard the first year horror stories myself. I mean, obviously we have our fights, but I always used to be competitive about winning fights. Maybe I've mellowed in my middle age, because with you I'm much happier to work through a problem, figure out a middle ground and move on." Spotting the _Daily Planet_ building not far ahead of where they were, Vicki looked up through the windshield at the spinning globe for a second before sitting back again and continuing her thought as Jeff pulled the car into a parking garage. "Even yesterday, when I was mad over the perceived sleight of having sexy cankles, I wanted to use the car ride to cool off and forget about it. In my few previous real relationships I held grudges until things festered and inevitably blew up. Or I would bring up a previous fight and get mad all over again, such as how I just referenced sexy cankles, which now I actually find kind of amusing."

"Delayed satisfaction from compliments. Much preferred to immediately insulted by compliments." Jeff found a parking spot without much trouble, the garage almost as empty as the city streets had been, and had popped out of the car and was opening Vicki's door for her just as she was getting her seatbelt undone. Taking his hand, she swung her legs out of the car and used him to help pull herself up to her feet. After thanking him they began the walk to the _Planet_ building, the two blocks passing quickly before they were inside the elevator heading up to the bullpen. "Have you ever been here before?" Jeff asked her, and Vicki shook her head.

"Nope. I _have_ always wondered how Perry White runs things, so I guess I'll finally get first hand experience rather than just first hand accounts from Lois." As the elevator doors slid open, she stepped out and stopped, watching all the activity on the floor, with more people in the newsroom than she had expected. Mr. White must have rallied the troops hard to get this many people into the city and working the day after a major terrorist attack. Strangely, the room looked like it had a very similar setup to what it had in her dreams. "Had I not married you I probably would have been tempted to send him my résumé, see if I could get to work here with him and the other big names. Actually, no probably about it," she said as they started walking towards the main office at the back of the room. "By this point I would have started looking at papers I could step up to from the _Gazette_, but since there aren't that many with significantly larger circulation I don't know that I would have necessarily moved."

"Vicki! Oh my God!" Looking over just in time, Vicki was able to brace herself a little before getting pulled into a hug by Ashley, though it was a gentle hug, at least, as her former protégé had the decency not to tackle her. "I know it's only been a month, but it's so good to see you again." Ashley released her and stepped back, giving Vicki a once over that she could have lived without but had come to expect from people. "You look great. What are you doing here?"

"Thank you, and it's good to see you, too. Ryan sent me to cover the bombings since I was in Metropolis the last time it happened and that was my first assignment for the _Gazette_. I'm very glad to see you're safe, by the way. I would ask how Metropolis is treating you, but I think that might be the wrong question after what happened yesterday."

"Yeah, I was jogging in Centennial Park yesterday afternoon when the bombs went off." With a hand on Ashley's back, Vicki started guiding her towards Perry White's office, knowing that she might end up standing in one spot for an hour while her young companion spoke if she didn't get her moving. "I didn't know what was going on, but when Superman started putting survivors in the Park, I ran here as fast as I could. Mr. White was all ready here and I was able to give him first person confirmation for him that Superman had come back."

"It's always good for a journalist to be in the right place at the right time, even if we're unaware that we're in such a place beforehand. Now get back to work. I have to talk to Mr. White about where he wants me to work for the next few days so I'm not in the way of his staff. Hey," she said, smiling, "why don't you show Jeff where the break room is, assuming there is one. He can get himself a cup of coffee and me something made of chocolate." Jeff glanced at her, Vicki giving him a quick nod before Ashley guided him away. It was better to go into a meeting without a silent guardian, even if that guardian was her husband. Knocking on the door, there was a quick yell for her to come in, and Vicki did so. "Mr. White," she said, holding out a hand as she approached his desk. "Vicki Vale Powers from the _Gazette_. I believe Ryan alerted you that I was coming?"

"Sullivan? The hell are you doing here?" Perry asked as he stood up, leaving Vicki confused.

"No, I'm Vicki Vale Powers. Did Ryan Payne not call you, because he told me he was going to. I hate it when he does this to me. You'd never imagine somebody as forgetful as he can be would get to the position he has."

"No, he called me, said he was sending you and asked that I set you up in a vacant office for the next four or five days." He paused before leaning forward, resting his hands on his desk. "You sure you're not Chloe Sullivan?"

Stiffening, Vicki was suddenly on high alert. "Why would you ask me that?"

"Just curious," he muttered, shaking his head. "I thought... well, what I thought doesn't matter. Saw you and forgot that she was dead. Congratulations on the baby, by the way," he said as he looked down at his desk, waving a hand at her stomach.

"Thanks." There was more to this, much more. Why would he think that she was a dead woman she had been dreaming she was for months now? "Um, if you have a free office I can use then I'll mostly work out of there and try to stay out of the way of your staff. My husband is here with me, as I thought it a good idea to have some backup coming into a freshly bombed city when eight months pregnant. I'll make sure he doesn't get in the way, either."

"Yeah, that's fine. You can take Lane's office, to your right and all the way down when you walk out of here. The corner office."

"Have they heard anything about her?"

"They have," Perry answered, sitting back down and pointing to a chair, which Vicki lowered herself into. "Superman saved Lois yesterday when she was thrown off a building a few blocks from here. This was shortly before the bombs went off, and he flew her to a hospital that's a few hours from here so they could treat her for a gunshot wound to the stomach."

"Oh my God," Vicki said around her hand. "Is she okay?"

"I got a couple minutes to talk to Clark this morning and he said that she's holding tough after surgery yesterday. Luckily it was successful in repairing the damage because Superman got her to the hospital quickly enough to avoid the worst effects of stomach acid leaking into the rest of her body. The only good part of the whole mess was that the doctors did tests and found that she had all ready been drugged before being shot, to the point where she was unconscious when they did it. She's still unconscious but that's for medical reasons through the rest of today and her vitals are steady. They think that she should make a full recovery, but it could be a bit of a waiting game to see when she wakes up and how pissed she'll be that she got shot again."

Resting a hand over her thumping heart, Vicki slid it down to her stomach as the baby kicked forcefully. She couldn't imagine what Lois's children were going through, what Clark must be going through right now with Lois in the hospital. She couldn't imagine Jeff going through that, and she thought imagining their child seeing her in the hospital, full of wires would make her cry. God, Lois being in the hospital was almost enough to make her cry! Pushing herself out of the chair, she took a long, slow breath to try and bring her emotional response down to a more normal, less tearful place. "I'm glad to hear that she's doing well. She and I struck up a friendship when she was working in New York, working at the _Times_."

"Not surprising, considering," he said under his breath before looking up at her. "She must really have liked you because Lois isn't one to make friends in the field of journalism, even the people that work with her. She considers everybody a competitor."

"Yeah, that's what she told me once. Guess when you find somebody that you click with you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Look, I'm going to get out of your hair," Vicki said, moving towards the door to Perry's office. "You said the corner office to the right?"

"That's the one. Let me know if you need anything."

"Will do, Mr. White." Walking out of the office, Vicki smiled as she found Jeff waiting for her, candy bar in hand as he leaned against the wall. She took it from him, tearing into it as soon as she had removed the wrapper as he followed her to her temporary office, but she couldn't get a question out of her mind. Why would Perry White think she was Chloe Sullivan?

* * *

><p>Pushing his glasses up on his nose as he walked into the hospital, Clark used the same hand to rub some dampness off the back of his neck, leftover from the quick shower he had taken at the farm before driving to the hospital, not having taken much time to dry off before dressing. He had been tempted to fly, as that would have both dried him off and gotten him to the hospital more quickly, but had decided he should probably try to seem normal considering he hadn't been back to the hospital since he had brought her in three days earlier. Not suspicious at all, bringing your previously missing wife to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the stomach, disappearing immediately and not coming back for three days.<p>

Every moment since then he had been in the city, pulling survivors and bodies out of what was left at the bombing sites, which in many cases wasn't much. The explosives they had used had been powerful, and were in the right spots to bring buildings down. He wasn't sure how they could have planted that much explosive around the city without anybody noticing, but he didn't have the time to look into that right now. That was an investigation for the not-so-distant future. Passing the nurses station, he walked briskly past room after room until he spotted Bruce standing outside the room he had been told was Lois's by Oliver, who was currently running point on Justice League operations in Metropolis. As soon as they had arrived it had made a huge difference in helping find survivors, but the lists of casualties and fatalities were all ready too long. Even with League members in the city helping, Clark hadn't been able to get away, to steal any time to visit Lois and see for himself how she was doing. The only evidence he'd had that she was alive was her heartbeat, a sound he had always come back to after having to use his hearing for other things. It had been an anchor to help him focus whenever the world around him had started becoming a blur, one action melting into another as he worked to help people and Metropolis.

"Is she still unconscious?" Clark asked Bruce, who nodded before silently pointing into Lois's room. Looking inside, Clark was shocked to see Vicki sitting in a chair next to Lois, both hands resting on top of her stomach while she was talking to her. Had Vicki not been pregnant Clark would have sworn that he had seen this nearly every time Lois had been in the hospital, that it was Chloe in the room telling Lois what she was missing to entice her to wake up. "How... How does she even know that Lois is here?"

"Vicki flew to Metropolis to cover the bombings. She's been working out of the _Daily Planet_ since Monday morning. Apparently Perry White told her that Lois was here on Monday so she decided to take this afternoon to come visit."

"She's been at the _Planet_?" Clark asked quietly.

"Vicki didn't mention anybody calling her Chloe, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened. We can only hope that should anything happen she writes it off as happenstance. If she starts investigating why people think she's somebody else there could be problems."

"I can't believe she came to Metropolis right after the city was bombed when she's so far along in her pregnancy. That's something I would expect of Lois, and maybe of Chloe, but not of many other sane women." Sighing, Clark opened the door and walked into the room, Vicki turning and looking back at the sound of the door. "Hey," he said quietly, half smiling as he closed the door again. "Welcome to Smallville. I wish you could have come visit Lois and I under better circumstances." Clark offered Vicki a hand as he noticed her sliding towards the end of the chair to get up, a motion that he had seen Lois make when she had been late in pregnancies.

"I'm just glad she's hanging in there. I was explaining to her that I was hoping my kid would get to know her one day, maybe get a tip or two on journalism from one of the few people I would let teach it to my child who isn't me. I hope you don't mind Jeff and I coming by, as we weren't sure if you wanted visitors. He's out in the car talking to work." Vicki smiled and started hugging him, which Clark found odd since they had never hugged before, but having been through waiting for Lois to wake before, knew hugging was protocol. "How have you been holding up?" she asked as she lowered herself back into the chair, Clark walking around to stand on the other side of Lois's bed.

"You're always welcome, of course. We've had lots of friends here and Lois would be glad that you came, too. How am I doing?" Clark shrugged. "I guess I'm doing as well as I can. I've been trying to split my time between being with her and at the farm, keeping the children distracted. Every time I come to sit with her I can hear her telling me that I should be with the children, and every time I go home my mom tells me that she can handle the kids and that I should be with Lois." Clark couldn't help but smile, knowing that he was lying by telling Vicki about how it had been before, when Jacob and Cassidy had been younger and Chloe had been out of the country on her travels. It was how it would have been, though, had he seen his mom or the kids since the bombings. All he'd had a chance to do was make an occasional quick call to the farm to make sure all three children were staying under control. "It's always an odd experience, knowing that Lois and my mom would disagree about something. Normally they agree on almost every topic." Listening to the breathing machine hiss, Clark's smile fell. "I wish that made it easier."

Vicki smiled as she scooted forward, taking Lois's hand in hers. "From what I've learned about Lois, I think this is just her way of taking a break. She seems to be moving a hundred miles per hour whenever she's working, and she says she goes double that when she's at home because of your children, so every now and again she needs a coma or bout of unconsciousness to recharge her battery."

"I wish she would find a less life threatening way to recharge. I've tried suggesting vacations but she claims she would get bored." That was only half true. She had talked about vacations a few times, the first before they had found out she was pregnant with Cassidy and then again a couple months ago, before Perry had told her that he wanted her at the _Planet_ right after her New York _Times_ contract ran out. But when wanting to take them she had said she wouldn't know how to fill time without anything to write and no children around, or just the one child back before Cassidy. He had known that it was her dislike of being separated from Jacob in the past, something he loved about her, and more recently their plans had been thrown out because of Perry, but she had mentioned that without three children in her ear at all hours she wouldn't know what to do with herself anyway. "I like to think it's that she loves the kids so much that time away might mess with her head. I don't think she would want to get used to the quiet."

Vicki chuckled and nodded at that. "I don't think you can work in a newsroom and get used to quiet, not even if you have an office. There's always the sound of one activity or... another." Clark looked up when Vicki paused, and as she finished her sentence she frowned. "I think she just gripped my hand." Clark was about to respond when he looked at her face and saw her face scrunching up into a scowl.

"Stay with her, please. I'm going to run and get her doctor," Clark said as he walked to the door. A few minutes later Clark was standing outside the room with Bruce, Vicki and Jeff, who Vicki had gone and gotten from their rental car. The doctors were still doing tests on whatever they tested in these circumstances but Clark could see that Lois's eyes were open and they had removed the breathing tube, which he thought was a positive sign, at least based on previous instances of Lois being hospitalized.

"I wish we could see more, or that they would come tell us something," he heard Vicki mutter, as they were all looking through a window in the door of the room and the doctor was blocking most of the view of Lois, the only part of her being visible was her eyes.

"They like to take their time, make sure every test is run twice and that Lois knows who she is, who the president is, who her husband is. There are always lots of tests to make sure her brain didn't suffer any damage that scans didn't pick up." He smiled at Vicki for a second before looking back through the window. "I'd say you get used to the waiting, but it's more like getting used to being impatient."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"That's the only way I've figured out how to explain it, and I've had a lot of time to think about how to explain it." Clark would have tried to explain further but the doctor moved away from Lois's bed and started walking towards the door, everybody backing away so that he could exit without pushing through them. He smiled as he exited, clapping Clark on the shoulder.

"Everything looks good, Mr. Kent. You can go ahead and see your wife."

Nodding to the doctor, Clark gave one quick look back at the others before walking inside, where he found the nurses helping Lois sit up, seeing her wince as she got settled. Any expression on her face was a welcome one, despite the fact that he had missed most of her expressionless convalescence. An unexpressive Lois was not the Lois that normally inhabited the world, which never meant good things were happening. Nodding to the nurses as they passed him, Clark walked over and sat down next to his wife, who looked over at him and frowned. "You look tired."

"Even I get tired when my wife is missing and then the world goes crazy. Again."

"That sounds ominous," she said quietly, her breath catching as she tried twisting her body to face him. Standing up, Clark went and stood at the foot of her bed so that she didn't feel the need to twist around to better see him.

"Did they give you anything for the pain?"

She shook her head. "Yeah, something they give women in labor with a name I can't remember, which is funny since I went through three labors without any pain medication. They said it will take the edge off and might make my brain fuzzy, but in more complicated terms. They offered me a morphine drip but taking the edge off will be fine. Let's me know I'm still alive, having shooting pains in my midsection. Now, no more changing the subject. What do you mean by the world went crazy again?" Sighing and dropping his head, Clark explained how he had gone into the city and ended up saving her, only to have half the city blow up as a result, and how he'd spent every minute since helping with recovery efforts and then cleanup, how he hadn't been able to come to the hospital to sit with her until that afternoon right before she had woken up. "You saved me, and your worst fear came true," Lois said softly, closing her eyes. "Smallville, I'm so sorry."

"They would have attacked the city again with or without me saving you, Lois. I may have felt like I was the reason for the attacks in the first place, but I had to go to Metropolis to try to find you. I just needed that one last push that was, sadly, almost losing you. If I hadn't saved you because I was too afraid to go into the city..." Clark looked away and swallowed. "_That_ would have been my worst fear come true."

"Smallville..."

"This is what they wanted. The whole reason they kidnaped you is because they wanted the one person that Superman always, _always_ saves. I'll always catch you when you fall." Clark shrugged. "That's why I'm here. And now they made a mistake, because them bombing the city made me realize what you've been telling me, that the world needs Superman. You were right again." They shared a smile for a moment until Clark's hearing picked up the sound of the others outside the door, still waiting to be let in. "Uh, the kids are doing fine. Should have mentioned that instead of distracting you by looking tired."

"Of course. I don't feel like a bad mother at all, my children not being the first thing to pop into my mind after waking up from unconsciousness."

"You can feel like it all you want, but that doesn't make it true." Clark smiled and patted the top of her foot wit his hand before walking to the head of the bed and kissing her gently. "Also, there are some people here to see you. Believe it or not, a contingent of Gotham City residents are in the hospital."

Lois looked confused for a moment before her eyes went wide. "Vicki and Jeff are here? What the hell are they doing in Smallville? Well, visiting me, obviously," she said, rolling her eyes. "What the hell are they doing in Kansas and anywhere near Metropolis?"

"Vicki is covering the bombings and Jeff came with her so they both had peace of mind about the baby. Bruce is here, too, because of the League business in Metropolis."

"What... _what_?" He heard Lois suck in air tightly and grimace as she twisted a little and started waving a hand at the door, and the others started shuffling in, Vicki at the front of the line. "What the hell are you thinking, covering something like this when you're eight months pregnant? Are you out of your mind? Nobody is that crazy!" Clark cleared his throat and Lois threw up her hands. "Fine, _I'm_ that crazy, but that does not excuse you putting your baby at risk! And you," she said, pointing at Jeff, who had the good sense to look worried, "When you guys threw us that going away party as honorary members of your group of friends, I told you that you had to keep her safe, keep her from doing something crazy. Did running to Metropolis to cover a giant bombing of the city not qualify as crazy in your book, even with you coming along?"

"What the hell is happening?" Vicki asked. Clark noticed that she had moved away from the bed, same as he had while Lois lit into Jeff for not keeping Vicki out of Metropolis, and was looking up at him discretely as she adjusted her glasses, like she was trying to keep one eye on Lois and Jeff and the other on him.

"This is how Lois tends to work out some of her anger about getting shot, stabbed or just badly injured in general." Clark pointed behind Vicki, to where Bruce was standing in a corner. "See how he never got too close to the bed? He's been through one of Lois's post unconscious tongue lashings before and knows where not to be. Had Jeff not been here I'm afraid you would have been the unfortunate victim. This is why I like to wait to bring the children to see her."

"Should I intervene? I can tell by Jeff's posture that he's about to start arguing with her in his calm, lawyer way where he makes too much sense and ends by making you feel like an idiot."

Clark frowned and shook his head. "Better to not get in the line of fire. If Jeff can hold his own instead of getting steam rolled, more power to him." Clark would have gone on to explain how Lois's mind usually worked right now but her volume increased, causing him to look over at her.

"Look, I know you think you're being reasonable in explaining how she's safe here with you, but unless you can sniff out any extra bombs that may be in the city waiting to explode and cause more chaos, Chloe should not be in Metropolis while she's pregnant!" Clark couldn't help straightening as she was nearly at the point of yelling by then, and Lois seemed to realize what she had said as soon as it had left her mouth because she went wide eyed. "Vicki, I meant. I don't know why I said Chloe."

"No! Hold on!" Vicki said loudly, surprising Clark enough that he took a step back. "Why the hell do people keep calling me Chloe? Perry asked me on Monday if I was Chloe Sullivan, and then when I introduced myself to Ron Troupe yesterday he thought I was Chloe Sullivan, too! Now _you're_ calling me Chloe? This is all on top of dreams I've been having for months where I'm Chloe Sullivan. You're in a lot of them, Lois, and you are too, Clark. Hell, Clark even shows up as Superman from time to time!" Vicki moved to stand next to Jeff, who had backed away from the bed. "Somebody tell me what the hell is going on!"

Clark looked to Lois and Bruce, each staring at the other before Bruce gave a very small shrug and Lois nodded slightly. "The reason people keep calling you Chloe is because you bear a striking resemblance to my cousin. Clark, do you still have the picture of Chloe and me in your wallet from when Jacob was a newborn?" He nodded and pulled his wallet out, flipping to the picture and pulling it out of the plastic sleeve before walking over to hand it to Vicki. "Do you see why people would think you're her?" Both Vicki and Jeff looked shocked, nodding. Clark moved around to the side of the bed to hold Lois's hand as she continued. "Chloe was haunted. Bad things would happen to her out of the blue, often enough that she started to expect bad things to happen all the time. She was finally happy, really happy, but about six years ago Lex accused her-"

"Of writing an article about his secret tests on second generation meteor infected that was made up. He claimed he would never do anything like that, but you and Clark proved that he did, that the experiments had taken place. That's why he's in prison now," Vicki said quietly. "But she had been pushed too far after losing her dream job, her fiancé and her father in the span of two weeks. She confronted Lex, gun in hand. You told her you had the proof to put him away when she was threatening to shoot him, trying to talk her out of what she was doing, but it didn't work. She pulled the trigger twice but ended up shooting Superman, shooting Clark, instead, because Lex had lined his bullets with kryptonite. She used her meteor power to heal him."

Looking down at Lois, Clark left the question unasked, but she knew what it was anyway. She nodded, Clark doing the same before pulling off his glasses and tossing them on the bed, straightening his posture and crossing his arms over his chest. "I wish we didn't have to have this conversation here," Lois said quietly. "A hospital isn't exactly the most private place in the world."

"I'm keeping an ear out, Lo. I'll let you know if anybody is coming."

"Thanks, Smallville. Bruce, did you sweep for bugs earlier?" He grunted, a signal they both knew to indicate that he found the question insulting. "Okay then, I guess there's no time like the present. Vicki, Jeff... I suggest you both sit down because there are some things we need to talk about."


	34. Chapter 34

- Chapter 34

Trying to adjust how she was sitting in the bed, Lois clenched her teeth as pain radiated out from the wound in her midsection, reminding her just how much she hated getting shot. She wished she knew why her kidnappers had thought she needed to be shot when they were going to throw her off a building, but if they had told her their reasoning she didn't remember it. She didn't even remember being kidnapped. The last thing she knew before waking up with a tube in her throat and medical personnel hovering over her she was getting into her car, trying to figure out why she was so dizzy. Her captors had been smart to keep her drugged, but it was bothersome to know that something had happened and not remember any of it. She liked getting a good look at people that did things that pissed her off, and getting kidnapped was high on the list of things that pissed her off.

And now, coming off that, she had to figure out what exactly she was going to tell Vicki. She wanted to ask Bruce to wake Chloe up, to bring her back and ask for her help, but she had no idea what would happen or how they would bring Vicki back without first flying Chloe to Gotham City. It seemed odd, thinking Gotham more safe than Metropolis, but right now that was true. Hopefully Clark returning to Superman duty would be able to remedy that, but there was no telling what a group of madmen that had bombed the city twice would do next. Whatever the case, Lois thought it best to try and explain the situation to Vicki and Jeff rather than bring back Chloe, allowing her to regain consciousness to find out she was pregnant and leave Jeff unsure of who he had married, though that might happen no matter what. He was a good man, of that she had no doubt, but even good men had their limits. Clark had been a living example of a good man having limits, even when he was the strongest man in the world. "The things I'm about to tell you can't leave this room," Lois started, trying to buy herself some time so she could come to an idea of how to word this so Vicki and Jeff didn't think she was making it up. "These are important secrets, life saving secrets. Got it?" They both nodded, leaving nothing but the task at hand left. "Chloe didn't die in the first bombings, though I wasn't aware of that until last year, almost a full year after her death had supposedly happened. Did either of you see the footage of the woman running out of the ice cream parlor just prior to its destruction?"

"Of course," Jeff said, looking at Vicki before looking back to her. "Everybody saw that. It was some of the only footage of an actual explosion from the original bombings. They tried all sorts of things to identify the woman in the video but nobody ever did."

Lois looked down at her lap, flexing her hands to get some more feeling into them. They kept the Smallville Medical Center colder than they had in the past and her circulation wasn't what it once was, leaving her with cold hands. That, and she was nervous as hell about having the conversation they were getting into. "That was Chloe, trying to get away. She had my son and older daughter with her at the time. I pawned them off on her so I could try and get some work done. Didn't even say a proper goodbye, really, before shuffling the three of them out the door so I could be Lois Lane Kent rather than Mom for an afternoon. Anyway, a suicide bomber went inside, his intention to take out Chloe personally. She made sure my son and daughter got out safely before disabling the bomber but not the bombs. She ran, was thrown into a car, and that's all I knew until the Kerth Awards last year, when my cousin's doppelgänger came and congratulated me for winning.

"I thought you were her, Vicki. I would have sworn on my life that underneath the glasses and dark hair that you were just pretending not to know me, that Chloe had become an extremely talented actor. But you aren't her. You don't remember all our time together growing up, what we lived through in Smallville and working together at the _Daily Planet_. We are our memories, and your memories are different than Chloe's." Sighing, Lois met Vicki's eyes. "The reason for that is that your memories are adjusted versions of Chloe's. Some things are the same, like your dad dying in 2019 and your mom splitting when you were young. Other things are similar but different, such as wanting to grow up to be a journalist and how you attained that goal. That was Chloe's dream, but she went straight to the big time, starting at the _Planet_ straight out of college, where as you worked your way up to the big publications. Some things are just different, such as where you were born, where you grew up, your birthday... what all is specifically changed I don't know, but suffice to say it's enough. For that reason, you are not Chloe Sullivan. You are Vicki Vale." Chewing on the inside of her cheek, Lois tried to figure out where to go next, wishing she had some sort of list of what she should cover now and what she should save for later, but she doubted Vicki would have waited for a list to be made. "Chloe was specifically targeted in the first round of bombings. The suicide bomber that tried to kill her was the first bomb to go off, the one that triggered all the others. Chloe decided it would be in her best interest, and in the best interest of Metropolis, that she disappear, so she turned to a trusted friend that had helped her before."

"Chloe didn't think she would be able to stay away from Metropolis if she left and simply assumed another identity, so I had her go to Gotham," Bruce said quietly, continuing the story.

"There was a piece of technology developed by my company while I was traveling, while my company was being run by those with militaristic intentions that neither myself, nor my father, would have approved of. As a result there are some things of a less than savory nature owned by Wayne Enterprises, one of which is a machine that enables memory manipulation. Its intended use was to turn people into perfect spies that could infiltrate an enemy, one thinking himself totally legitimate in his reasons for joining an organization, who is then awakened with a code phrase and remembers everything he has done in his other personality and can share that information before being put back where he was, unaware of who he really is or why he's really there. The technology proved useful in its practical applications but results were mixed. The code phrase worked only half the time, which meant our government was supplying enemy soldiers and getting nothing in return, something they found unacceptable. Others had trouble living with what they had done when they had been undercover, as infiltrated organizations were of a cutthroat nature. It was shelved and forgotten until I found it a few years ago, when going through some inventory items from R&D. I proposed to Chloe that she use it to stay away from Metropolis, and she decided it was her best bet, despite the fact that she may not ever come back. She became Vicki Vale, an identity I had created for her, complete with birth certificate, social security number and job at the Gotham _Gazette_." Bruce reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, putting it to his ear after tapping the screen. "Alfred, I need you to bring in Chloe's statement."

"So... Vicki is Chloe Sullivan?" Jeff asked, Lois hearing hesitancy in his voice. She was surprised that Vicki hadn't said anything yet. She didn't appear to be looking at anything in particular, her face almost expressionless except for the slight downturn of her mouth.

"No, she's not," Lois said, looking away from Vicki to make eye contact with Jeff. "We are our memories, and the memories of Vicki and Chloe are different. They share a body, but Vicki is Vicki, an individual all her own. If you want to be technical you could call her a version of Chloe, a version that hasn't seen the same horrible things and survived them by the skin of her teeth. The best version of Chloe, maybe. But now some of Chloe's memories are bleeding through into Vicki's dreams, probably because of the pregnancy and the changes in her brain chemistry. You both have no idea how much that wasn't happening, how much I wish so many of Chloe's worst memories could stay buried."

"The technology was never tested on a pregnant woman, nor one who became pregnant," Bruce said. "When Chloe decided to become Vicki neither of us took into consideration that Vicki could fall in love. We were shortsighted, but other matters were on both our minds." At a knock on the door, Bruce walked to it and allowed Alfred to enter, carrying a tablet underneath one arm. He handed it to Bruce, who took it and walked to Vicki. "I brought Chloe back once, after you introduced me to Jeff. I asked her how she wanted to handle what was going on, if she wanted to continue hiding. She did, obviously. Not for the original reasons, but because she had all of your memories. She decided to be selfish, because while she's not you, she thought this was the closest she would get to having the life she had dreamed of one day attaining. Respected journalist, in love with somebody that truly loved her... she didn't think she could have those herself, so she ceded the ground to you, Vicki, so that you had a chance to be happy where she couldn't." Handing the tablet to Vicki, Bruce retreated to the door. "Chloe recorded a message for you to try and explain herself should this ever happen. I suggest you watch and see what she says."

Bruce walked out of the hospital room with Alfred, leaving the four remaining in silence. Lois watched as Vicki stared at the tablet for a moment, not knowing what more there could be to say, until Vicki hefted herself up and walked out. Jeff moved to follow after her but stopped, turning to face them after a minute of staring at the door. It wasn't difficult to tell that he was struggling to find something to say. "I know Vicki doesn't technically have any family, but I guess this means we're in-laws?"

Lois shrugged before looking up at Clark, who did the same. "If you go by the genetic definition, then yes. But Vicki Vale isn't my cousin. She's similar, but trust me, she's not Chloe."

* * *

><p>Climbing into the rental car, Vicki set the tablet aside, rubbing the palms of her hands slowly against her closed eyes, attempting to ward off tears that had been threatening to fall since the moment Lois had told her that she was an adjusted version of her cousin. What that really meant was that she wasn't real. Her life was a fabrication, a way for another woman to hide from her demons and those who wanted to harm her. Her friendship with Bruce was based on his helping Chloe hide. Her friendship with Lois was because she had the face of her cousin, a similar personality and none of the baggage. The only things that could be considered real in her life were what she had come to know since her arrival at the <em>Gazette<em>, which gave her just over two years of real experiences in her life. She was two years old. The only comfort was that Jeff was real, that no part of their relationship was a lie or fabrication. She, Vicki, had fallen in love with him with no influence by anybody else. They had gotten married and were starting a family because it was what they wanted together. Was it that simple, though? She had questioned herself over and over again when they were trying to decide whether they wanted children or not, but some part of her had always told her that she wanted to have children, that she wanted that life despite everything she had known about herself. Never having cared about getting married, about having children... that had all been the fabrication. So had it been Chloe bleeding through, a subconscious influence that had swayed her to consent to marrying Jeff, to be the one that had taken the lead by asking Jeff whether he wanted to have children or not? She had chalked it up to wanting to try and be happy like everybody else for once, a sudden onset of realizing she, too, had a biological clock, but one that made itself known in a more subtle manner. Was it that, or was it that Chloe Sullivan had always wanted to find happiness in her personal life as well as her professional life? After all, Vicki was only a journalist because Chloe had been one. Was that why she was now becoming a mother, too?

As if hearing her thoughts, Vicki felt the baby start kicking, her handing moving to her stomach of its own volition to feel a tiny foot press against it. What she knew about herself may be a lie, but her son or daughter was still a part of her. "My baby," Vicki whispered, letting her head fall back against the headrest as she intertwined her fingers and slid them down until she was cupping the end of her stomach. "My innocent little baby. I love you. Vicki Vale, Chloe Sullivan... whoever I am, no matter what, I will always love you. I wish I could explain to you how confusing the world can be, how chaotic and maddening life can be, but there will always be the constants of love in your life. Me, your dad, your Aunt Beth and all your family will love you no matter what." Pausing, Vicki sighed. "And I guess your cousin Lois will, too." Swallowing, Vicki picked up the tablet again, turning it on. There was only one icon on a screen and she tapped the screen, causing it to go to black before a face popped up, her face, with her hair and her complexion, but without her glasses.

"I feel like this is talking to myself, but I know that I'm not. It's my face that will be watching this should the need ever arise, my brain contemplating what this all means, but it won't be me." Chloe paused and looked down, scratching at an eyebrow. "You know this, but in case you need reminding, Vicki Vale is not Chloe Sullivan. I have all your memories, all your experiences bouncing around in my head, and I have to say that as similar as Lois and I are, you're closer being like Lois than I am. I'm not sure you know who I'm talking about, but I assume you do since you'll only be watching this video if you're remembering things about being me. Lois Lane, my cousin, has been such a huge part of my life that if you're remembering the bits and pieces where she isn't prominent, then my brain is more screwed up than I thought. If that's the case, find Lois Lane and explain the situation. I know how you think and she's the best resource for information on Chloe Sullivan that exists. Clark Kent is a close second." Vicki paused the video, needing a break to try and process what she was seeing. She was watching herself but the tone of the voice was wrong, the expressions different. Chloe seemed like she had a dark cloud hanging over her head while she spoke, a constant frown on her face. Shaking off the weirdness, or at least hoping she had, Vicki started the video again. "I'm going to keep this short. I could go on and on, trying to explain myself to you, trying to explain why I chose to bring you into existence and let Chloe Sullivan disappear into the ether. What it boils down to is that I know myself, know the demons in my head and the mountains of self-doubt that I deal with on an hourly basis. I will be hounded by those things for the rest of my life. Instead of that, instead of choosing to be miserable, I'm choosing to let somebody else be happy. I've sacrificed my own happiness for the happiness of others before, and I'm willing to do it again because you've fallen in love with Jeff. You deserve that. Truth be told, I'm lucky not to be in prison for the rest of my life. I don't deserve this chance, for my life to continue, at least in a way, but I'm taking it.

"If I know Lois, she might refer to this choice as a gentle form of suicide because if I had my way, you would get to live your life without ever having to know I existed. Obviously that has failed, but the second option is that you know about me but I never have to come back. It's your life now, and I think it's for the best that way. Don't question why you exist, because it's the same reason everybody does: happenstance. Usually there's sex involved, too, but I guess that makes you special. Anyway, the world is a better place with Vicki Vale in it that it was with Chloe Sullivan in it. Selfless as that sounds, it's a selfish decision. Feeling the love you have for Jeff, despite you not being able to admit that's what it is yet, made me remember what love feels like. I want to continue feeling that, even if my consciousness isn't aware of it. It's a gift, pure and simple. So live. Be who you are, Vicki, who I know you can be. Live a life I struggled for but failed to attain. Just... live." With a shrug and a weak smile from Chloe the screen went to black before Vicki tapped a button, turning the tablet off. Frowning, Vicki stared at the piece of technology in her hands, thinking about Chloe's advice. Live. About as non-specific but pointed as advice could be. Now she just had to figure out what exactly her life meant.

* * *

><p>Blinking, Jeff slammed his mouth closed as he watched Clark Kent hover a foot off the ground, having just a moment ago confessed to being Superman. When Clark had taken his glasses off earlier and stood up straighter Jeff had thought he looked familiar, but never in a million years would he have guessed why. He would have bet on looking like a sports star, or somebody he had gone to high school with, even somebody Beth had gone to high school with before the slumping, bespectacled nerd would have ever crossed his mind as being in the same sentence as Superman, or any other super hero. This was the kind of guy he thought would have married Lois. That Clark Kent had been her husband after getting to know Lois and meeting Clark a few times had left Jeff realizing that love really was strange. Now the two of them together made <em>a lot<em> more sense. It was just everything else about Clark Kent that made him question many things that he thought he had known about the world. "So," Jeff said, blinking again as he watched Clark float back down to the ground and move back to Lois's bedside. "Am I... I mean... I appreciate that you trust me, but I'm not entirely sure why you're letting me in on this secret."

Lois took Clark's hand as he put his glasses back on and messed with his hair as he started slouching again. It was a very effective disguise for barely being one at all. She smiled at Clark before turning to face him. "Keeping Clark's secret was something that cost Chloe relationships in the past. We don't want it to be a secret between you and Vicki. She's not my cousin but she is my friend, something I hope continues beyond this day of revelations that nobody wanted. We don't want her to have to hide something from you for Clark when she came to the knowledge through no fault of her own."

"That's kind of an amazing thing to do for a friend. I assume that this is something that not many people beyond this room know. That you would include me in that for the sake of my marriage to Vicki..." Jeff trailed off, shrugging before sitting down. "I wish I knew how she was dealing with this. Hell, I wish I knew how _I'm_ dealing with this because the fact that my wife used to be somebody else is kind of a hits-you-later concept, or at least that's how I'm interpreting it because it doesn't feel like it has hit me yet. I believe I'm still in the shock portion of that particular revelation."

"Does it change how you feel about her?" Clark asked.

"No, of course not. I love Vicki no matter what her name is or what crazy dreams she's having from a former life. I don't love conditionally. Hell, people have always told me that marriage takes work, but being married to Vicki hasn't taken anywhere near as much work as I was led to believe it would. Occasional fight, bit of a bicker here and there, but overall? I'm just a little happier every day that I found her."

Lois smiled at him. "You have no idea how happy that makes me."

Hearing the door behind him, Jeff turned in his chair and found Vicki walking back into the room, her brow still scrunched up but more in a way that she was thinking about something rather than the sad way it had been earlier. Something on the tablet Bruce had given her must have at least alleviated some fear in her, or at least given comfort about what was going on. Standing up, he walked over to her, meeting her halfway between Lois's bed and the door. He pulled her into a hug before she could say anything, kissing the top of her head as she rested it against his chest. "I love you," he said quietly.

"I know," he heard her mumble, "and I love you, too."

"You wouldn't believe what Clark told me while you were out of the room. Apparently he's Superman."

"Yeah, that's kind of a huge deal. I'm surprised that they let you in on that. From what I've dreamed, it isn't exactly information that they're free in revealing."

"They didn't want there to be a secret between us."

She pulled her head away and looked up at him before pulling out of his arms and walking over to the side of Lois's bed. Jeff followed slowly, stopping just behind her. He rested a hand on her shoulder and gently rubbed a thumb across the back of it, knowing that it was a spot that she held tension in. "You really did that? You told Jeff about Superman because you didn't want me to have to keep a secret from him?"

"We've seen what not being able to share that information can do to people," Clark said. "It can be a burden to know my secret, but when you have somebody else to talk about it with, somebody to share it with, it's not quite so tough. And for the record, Sam knows that I'm Superman, too. Three can be better than two, though I'm not sure how much she'll be able to say."

"Uh, what?" Jeff asked, now very, very confused. "Why would Sam know that you're Superman?"

"She's my therapist," Clark said simply, apparently not seeing the need to give explanation beyond that. Jeff thought he might have a thousand questions to ask about how Sam had ended up as Clark's therapist and many more about why he needed one, but he bit his tongue, knowing that this was not about that. Of course, the first time he saw Sam when they were back in Gotham City he was going to get her alone and figure out how long she had known. He probably wouldn't get anything out of her beyond that, since Clark was a patient, but she could at least tell him how long she hadn't said anything now that he was in the know as well.

"First, a question: exactly how close were you and Chloe? Every dream where I'm Chloe also has you in it."

Lois looked down at the bed, nodding before looking up again. "I loved Chloe like a sister, and for a long time I was closer to her than my actual sister. I treated her like one, too, and did that to her more than I ever did Lucy. All I ever wanted was for her to be happy. Now... now I guess she is happy, because this is how she chose to live out her life."

"So the reason I saw you get teary when I announced my pregnancy was that your cousin, somebody you considered a sister, was pregnant?"

"No," Lois said, shaking her head, "it was because I knew I wouldn't get to be in the life of a baby I knew would be amazing like I had always thought I would. I was sad when I first met you and got an explanation from Bruce about what he had done, what Chloe had chosen to do, but I found peace in knowing that you were happy. But hearing that you were going to have a baby?" Lois sighed, shifting how she was sitting but still holding hands with Clark. Jeff assumed that after being unconscious for three days that was probably normal behavior. "Here's the best way to describe how much I loved Chloe. If something had happened to Clark and myself she would have gotten custody of my children. We could have chosen Clark's mother or my sister, but if I wasn't there for my kids, I wanted them with Chloe. I wanted her to be the one that raised my children if Clark and I couldn't. That's who she was to me, to Clark and I, for a long time."

"Wow, okay. Loved Chloe like a sister, named her guardian of your children should you two meet an untimely demise... so basically you're like Beth is with Jeff except you can't put voice to it." That left Lois looking confused, but Jeff thought he knew what Vicki was getting at. He almost felt like he and Clark were extraneous to what was going on, that they could leave the room and Vicki and Lois might not even notice. "I assume you've noticed that Beth fawns over my stomach, over our baby, like it was her own and I'm carrying it for her. I get the sense that were Chloe still around you would be the same way, though maybe not every time you saw each other."

"No, it would be every time, or at least it would have been for the first six months or so. As much time as Chloe and I spent together, she probably would have kicked me in the shin a few times within a week of starting to show." Shrugging, Lois rested her head back against the bed, smiling a little as she looked up at the ceiling. "I wanted to be that way every time I got to see you, but it came down to knowing that you and I are friends, not family. Chloe Sullivan is Vicki Vale but Vicki Vale is not Chloe Sullivan, and only one of the two is my cousin. But I love your baby like crazy and that will never change, no matter what your name is or how often I see you. That's something I can't help."

"That's a good answer," Vicki said quietly. Taking a step back, Jeff pulled the chair he had been sitting in over and bumped it lightly against the backs of Vicki's legs, Vicki sitting down slowly and shooting him a smile before looking back to Lois. "I wish I could say something that made this easier, not just for me but for everybody."

"You're handling it well," Clark said.

"I could be angry and lash out, be emotionally distraught about what I've found out, about why there is a Vicki Vale and the fact that people have lied to me. That option, which seems entirely likely to hit me once I'm no longer in shock, will be painful and depressing. I'm going to try to avoid the painful and depressing for as long as possible, though I don't imagine I'll be able to avoid it for long. Until that hits me I can focus on what's really important, that I want to be happy and that I don't want this to be something that changes how I see people and is a dark cloud over the rest of my pregnancy. I _really_ don't like that I was lied to, but while it'll take me time to forgive and forget, I do understand why it was done. I would do the same for somebody close to me if it meant their safety and happiness. As for actually existing for only two years... well, Chloe said it best. We're all here because of happenstance. The only thing different about me is that I'm not a result of sex."

"She said that?" Lois asked, sounding incredulous. When Vicki nodded Lois started chuckling. "Chloe always did have a unique perspective on the world." She looked back up at Vicki. "You're really okay, knowing that some of your memories are fabrications or adjustments on what really happened? I expected something more along the lines of the five stages of grief rather than rational, thought out ideas."

"Okay would be a stretch. Right now I'm just trying _very hard_ to keep calm about everything." She nodded slightly for a second before she shook her head again. "For the most part I don't know many specific memories that are real, or the ones that were adjusted and the ones that are total fabrications, so that makes it easier. I'll question things from now on, obviously, but knowing that most of my memories are based on a similar reality to what Chloe lived, at least I know that it's not one big lie, just a number of smaller ones." Jeff laid a hand on Vicki's shoulder as she sighed loudly. "It's a small victory, but right now I have to take whatever victory I can get."

* * *

><p>Dropping her purse onto the bed in their hotel room, Vicki soon dropped herself onto it, too, idly scratching at her stomach with her thumb before pulling it away, wanting to find something less irritating to her skin to occupy her hands. Nothing else seemed to come to mind, unfortunately, which left her with her hands resting on top of her stomach as Jeff sat down next to her, the bed shifting slightly as he sat down. "Is it all right if I cry now?" she asked, closing her eyes and leaning over until her head was resting against Jeff.<p> 


	35. Chapter 35

- Chapter 35

"I want to go home," Lois groaned, letting the arm that wasn't hooked up to an IV flop down on her hospital bed. "My pain is manageable, this bed is uncomfortable and I should be in Metropolis at a time like this!" Turning her head, she glared at Clark, who was sitting in a chair next to her bed, legs outstretched as he watched the national news on the television. This was only the second time that he had been able to come sit with her in the four days since she had woken up and had inadvertently told Vicki about Chloe. Lois didn't mind. She had insisted that he spend what little free time he got from the Metropolis cleanup with the children, and was still nearly euphoric that Clark had gone back to Superman duty. Had she known all it was going to take was getting shot and thrown off a building, she would have still avoided those activities like the plague. She hated both of them, and the only upside was that she couldn't remember either happening this time. Getting drugged finally had an upside, thought the bastards had ruined coffee for her.

"One more day, Lo. That's all the longer that your doctor wants to keep you, and you're lucky it's only that long. She said that most people with your injury take a lot longer to recuperate than you are. Can't say I'm entirely thrilled that a doctor in Smallville has such firsthand knowledge of how long gunshot wounds to the stomach take to heal, but that's a different topic." Clark turned his chair, putting his feet up on the side of her bed and smiling at her. "You're all ready exceptional. There's no need to push it only to end up here again."

"Damn right I'm exceptional," Lois muttered, crossing her arms and suppressing a grimace as she sat adjusted her positioning on the bed. Sighing, she started scratching at her wound idly before pulling her hand away, pain and annoyance at herself a reminder that she shouldn't do that. "My question is, What difference is one day going to make? What's going to change between today and tomorrow? They've scanned me, like, twelve different ways. They know the inside of my abdomen better than I do and that's no small feat considering three babies were in there and assaulted every organ they could reach."

"Technically that means our children know your insides, Lo, not you. You just know that your insides got kicked. And what difference a day makes doesn't matter. Doctor's orders are doctor's orders. You're out tomorrow and I'll even be here for it. Hopefully."

"I'll be happy if you are, Smallville, and I'll be just as happy if you're out saving somebody." Clark opened his mouth but Lois beat him to the punch, knowing he was going to try to argue with her. "I remember what it's like, Clark. I remember very well. I'm just happy that you're helping people again. It's what you were meant to do. It's part of why I love you so much, that you give so much of your time and yourself to the job. One has to search hard for a silver lining in this whole ordeal we've gone through, but if there is one, it's that while I used to have bouts of annoyance that you were gone to the point where I sometimes felt like a single mother, now that I've lived as a single mother I have some perspective. I will always take as much of you as I can get, no matter what."

"And I will always be with you and the children as much as I can," Clark said, smiling. It was so good to see him smile again. Lois hadn't realized how little he had smiled when he had come back from his captivity and when they had lived in Connecticut, not until she had woken up in a hospital bed and seen him a few times after resuming his Superman duty. The situation was horrible, but her Clark, her Smallville, was back. A part of him wasn't missing anymore. "I hope one day that the children understand how much I regret that I miss time with them, with all of you."

Shifting over to the side of her bed, Lois indicated for Clark to move closer to her, and he pulled his feet down and slid his chair over, so that they were both facing the same way. Reaching out, Lois threaded her fingers through his hair, which he had cut short again since the last time she had seen him. It was back to being short, like he had always kept it as an adult, rather than having let it grow out as he had the last year or so, similar to the way he occasionally had when they were younger. "They'll understand. If Jacob is any indicator, they'll grow into powers and come to understand the responsibilities that you have."

"I hope so. I'm just thankful that all Jacob has so far is speed and invulnerability."

"Me to," Lois said, then frowned, realizing that Clark hadn't just said speed. She pulled her hand away as she said, "Wait, wait. You say this like you've tested his invulnerability. While I'm aware that none of my children have ever been sick or gotten scrapes, cuts or bruises, I'm not sure I like the idea of testing him."

"Well it's not like I shot a gun at him or anything."

"That's not a statement that breeds confidence, Smallville!" Stopping, Lois took a calming breath so she didn't yell again. "What did you do to our son?"

"Lois, come on," Clark said quietly, holding up a hand and smiling. "Do you really think I would do anything that could potentially harm Jacob? It was accidental. I was at the farm last night and Mom was baking cookies for the kids. The battery in her timer died, they started burning and she couldn't find the potholders so Jacob reached in and grabbed it before I got there to do the same. When I walked into the kitchen Jacob was holding the tray, wondering why Grandma was looking so surprised. After that I took him to the fortress, had Jor-El scan him and got confirmation that Jacob inherited invulnerability."

"Why didn't you tell me when you got here?" Lois asked, much less annoyed than she had been before Clark's explanation. That was a simple thing, especially compared to how abnormal things in their lives usually were.

Shrugging, Clark sat back in his chair. "I was trying to figure out the best way to tell you. After not telling you about Jacob's speed for way too long because I was trying to figure out the perfect way to do so, I knew I had to tell you, I just didn't want to lead with 'You're son is invulnerable.'" Clark paused, then nodded. "Actually that's probably what I should have done. Seems like it would be reassuring more than worrying."

"Always lead with invulnerable children, Smallville. While it's not something that most moms have to deal with, it is reassuring that my son can't be hurt by normal things. Now I just have to hope he never comes into contact with kryptonite, not even as a test to see if it hurts him." Lois was about to elaborate on that subject but stopped when she noticed the picture on the television, of Superman on the ground in a dark room. "Clark, what are they showing?" Before he could answer, Superman slammed his hand down on the ground and it cracked, green gas leaking up around him a second later. She watched as he started coughing, pulling his body into a fetal position as blood started dripping onto the ground out of his mouth as he coughed. "Jesus," she whispered, looking down at him as he sat next to her. She found him wide-eyed, his mouth hanging open. "Clark." He didn't answer so Lois reached over and put her hand in front of his eyes. A useless gesture against somebody with x-ray vision, but she thought it would at least get his attention.

"I remember that," he suddenly said, gently pulling her hand down but holding on to it. "That was the day I started questioning the point of Superman. I was talking to you, to my hallucination of you. You were telling me that Superman was more than a title, that there was a purpose to what I did, to saving people. I slammed my hand down in anger because... because how could I be of any use to anybody if I couldn't even save my self? I wasn't strong enough, wasn't fast enough or smart enough..."

"You were in a prison designed specifically to hold _you_, Clark. There was nothing you could have done. Stop looking!" Clark closed his eyes, his head tilting down until his chin touched his chest. Lois squeezed his hand to let him know that she was still there, but wanted to do more. She scooted over to the other side of her bed, far enough that she was leaning over painfully to still hold his hand. "Get on the bed with me, Clark." He started shaking his head, but Lois wasn't going to accept that. "Come on. I don't want you to watch this." His eyes still closed, he slowly crawled up on to the bed until he was laid out, Lois cradling his head against her shoulder the same way she did when one of the kids had a bad dream, not knowing a more comforting way to hold him. "I love you, Smallville. You're never going to have to go through that again. I won't let it happen." Looking back up at the television as she held Clark, Lois read the captions at the bottom that were on because it was muted. They were talking about the statement and video that were sent to media outlets, claiming responsibility for the bombings and holding Superman captive during the first bombing. No names given, just video and a typed message. As much as she knew this was hurting Clark, being forced to relive that time as he saw it played out on screen, it occurred to her that the people responsible for the bombings had finally made a mistake. "I hate that you're hurting, but this is going to work in our favor, Smallville."

"How?" he asked quietly.

"They messed up. This is them gloating, telling people that they were able to capture Superman and bomb the city twice. But they just gave you the high ground with the public. Nobody is going to question you about why you disappeared now. Nobody is going to blame you for not helping in the aftermath of the first bombings." Kissing the top of Clark's head, Lois wiped away a tear as she started to smile a little. "They just redeemed Superman."

* * *

><p>Pen dangling out of her mouth, Vicki stared at the blank pad of paper in her hand, finding herself without the words she had hoped to find by moving away from her laptop and to pen and paper. When having trouble finding words in the past, Vicki had found that switching to pen and paper seemed to free up whatever it was that had her blocked, but the blank she had been drawing every time she had tried to start writing the column Ryan had given her didn't seem to want to go away. She wanted to blame the lack of words on Ryan, for taking her off investigations until she had the baby and returned from maternity leave, but her words had deserted her before that. She had lost her words the same day she had learned that her life before Gotham wasn't the life she remembered. She had barely been able to crank out her last piece on the Metropolis bombings the next day, scraping by because she had numerous quotes to work around. Now that she was dependent on her own brain for the majority of the words she couldn't seem to do what had always come so naturally. Then again, she actually had no idea if words had always come naturally to her. Lois had espoused that her cousin was the best natural journalist she had ever known, but what did that even mean? That she was a great investigator who could also write? That she was a great writer who could also do an investigation?<p>

Tossing her pen and paper aside Vicki pulled off her glasses and rubbed at her eyes, tired of being in her own head. It had been like this for every one of the ten days since finding out that Chloe Sullivan is Vicki Vale but Vicki Vale isn't Chloe Sullivan. As much as she wanted that to be the case, knowing what she now knew made her question everything about herself. Instead of living, as Chloe had asked her to do, she spent her time dissecting her every action, and even her thoughts. The more she thought about Chloe Sullivan the more she didn't want to think about it, but her mind kept taking her back there, wanting more information, working the same way she was used to when there was a situation where what she needed was information. That desire for more information, that need to get to the truth, was something that she had always loved about herself, but it was threatening to bury her in questions she didn't know how to answer.

One of the few things keeping her sane right now was Jeff, and she was thankful for that every second of the day. He had adapted to the idea of Vicki and Chloe being one and almost the same without much problem, telling her that he knew who she was, no matter what, and that it would take a lot more than a life she couldn't remember to change the way he felt about his pregnant wife.

She knew what she needed was more information, but she wasn't even sure she wanted it. Lois had told her some things about Chloe before they had left Smallville to drive back to their hotel, filling in details about her childhood and blank spots where she hadn't had dreams about Chloe's life, and Bruce had filled in some other blanks that Lois hadn't known once she had gotten back to Gotham, but it didn't feel like enough. If she could dig into Chloe's life, get a grasp on how her brain worked and how she had lived her life, it would at least answer some questions about her own through processes and actions. While there was a downside of clarifying what about her was leftover from Chloe and what specifically was Vicki, it had to be better to have too much information rather than too little. Her peace of mind probably depended on having too much information. She might be the personification of the unexamined life not being worth living, depressing as that was. She had thought that her life was pretty thoroughly examined until she found out that she'd had more than one.

Cradling her arms around her stomach, Vicki sighed as the baby started moving. He or she had been pretty quiet the last couple of hours, taking a nap while she had been once again failing to write. The one upside of the mess she was in was that she had been much less focused on the oddities and indignities of pregnancy, her brain otherwise occupied. It was odd, knowing that not long ago half her thoughts had been about what was going on with her body and her baby. Now she was so focused on herself that, while still intimately aware of the baby moving around or taking a break, the other craziness involved in the successful growth of said baby didn't seem like such a big deal, at least not in the grand scheme of things. Perspective, while nice, was something Vicki could have lived without, at least in this respect.

In an attempt to distract herself from a focus on her, thoughts, actions and every other aspect of her life, Vicki grabbed the pen and pad of paper, with no small amount of effort due to her belly. With a click of the top, she drew a line down the middle of the top page, and at the top of the left side wrote _Girl Names_, with _Boy Names_ following on the top of the right side. She had been putting off choosing names, feeling that it was better to wait until closer to the end of the pregnancy to choose a name. Jeff had asked her about names the night before for the first time in months, and she had agreed that she would come up with a list of at least ten names for boys and girls, Jeff doing the same so that they could see if there was any overlap and then go from there. Now she just had to try and remember the names of all the children in their group of friends, because it would get confusing if they named their son or daughter the same as one of the other children in the group. Flipping the page, she drew another line down the middle, deciding to write down all the names of the children in the group. It would be a good exercise for her, to see how much she remembered after having worked to memorize names of children and which couple each child belonged to. _Jenny, Liv, Bella, Alison, Lauren, Kaylee, Kristina, Naomi, Maggie, Eva, Meg_. Vicki jumped to the other side of the page and started writing boys names. _Eli, Ben, Paul, Roberto, Troy, Kevin, Cade, David, Owen, Warren, Tommy._ Counting the number of children listed, Vicki grinned as she realized that she had the correct number of names, twenty-two. She had known that she should, given that she had been getting to know all of them for almost a year and a half, but it was still good to know that her brain hadn't gone completely useless on her. Going back to the first page, Vicki went to the bottom of the page and wrote POWERS in big, bold letters, to make sure every name she considered was subject to being paired with the last name the baby would have. There were some instances she could remember where first name and last did not match well, she assumed because one parent had been attached to the name and the other had acquiesced, but her own child would not have to deal with that.

Tapping the pen against her teeth as she began to consider names, a few popped to mind for a girl. _Grace Powers._ _Rachel Powers._ _Natalie Powers__._ Liking the last one, Vicki underlined it. "Natalie Powers," she said quietly, liking the way it sounded out loud, confirming that it hadn't been her mind playing tricks on her. Moving over to the boys, she frowned as no names came to mind straight away. Going back to girls names, more that she had liked over the years, mostly the names of characters from books, came to her. _Danielle Powers_. _Catelyn Powers_. _Riley Powers_. _Tara Powers_. _Jocelyn Powers._ _Andrea Powers_. _Katherine Powers._ Looking over her list, Vicki found that she was at the requisite ten names, and going over the list again, found that, besides Natalie her favorite of the bunch was Jocelyn, but that Natalie was still the best amongst the group. "What do you think?" Vicki asked, looking down at her stomach. A few seconds later a foot appeared like it was trying to push its way out of her stomach, which she thought meant that the baby approved, or the baby was annoyed that she thought he was a girl. She would be better informed as to which was true soon enough, and was thankful not to get a painful kick to one of her organs.

Moving to the other, much emptier side of the paper, Vicki sucked on her teeth as she tried to think of acceptable boys names, but still found herself coming up empty. Her favorite male characters from books had much less usable names, like Rand, Kelsier, Elend and Kaladin. Good names for characters in books, but not names that one stuck a child with unless proactively punishing that child for any future teenage transgressions. Deciding instead to go with the names of favorite authors, she thought about books she had read over the years to find some names that would work. _Evan Powers._ _Noah Powers._ _Seth Powers_. _Arthur Powers_. _Blake Powers_. _Carter Powers._ _Logan Powers_. _Victor Powers_. _Nikolas Powers_. _Henry Powers_. Blinking as she realized that was ten names, Vicki looked up and spotted that more than half an hour had passed since she had started in on doing names, which meant that she had totally spaced out whilst pondering what to call her offspring. "Never used to lose track of time," she muttered, annoyed that she hadn't noticed that much time passing while she was trying to figure out what she and Jeff should name the baby. Hopefully there was some overlap in their name lists so that it would make things simpler. She could use some simple right about now, and she knew that she wasn't likely to get much simple once the baby was born.

* * *

><p>It was the silence that Beth enjoyed the most, the silence that enveloped the house, her car, and most importantly her mind, when Jenny and Liv started school again. Labor Day was the benchmark, the point when she knew her days would soon be free so she could get things done with fewer interruptions. She loved her girls like crazy, as much as she could love anything in the world, but by the time the school year was about to start Beth was more than ready to pack them up and send them somewhere else for the majority of daylight hours, if for no other reason than to hear herself think more than once a day. It would be better when they were older, when she would feel comfortable going back to work because they were self sufficient enough to fend for themselves after school. Sad as it made her to think of her girls being that old, of them no longer being her little girls, that was the goal. Have babies, raise them to be good and self-sufficient individuals, continue to worry that they're okay and wait to have grandchildren. If along the way she didn't lose her mind, all the better.<p>

Exiting her parked car, Beth walked into the building that housed Sam's office, having checked with her secretary if she was available for lunch today. That being confirmed, she had decided to surprise her best friend and take her out to lunch. It wasn't an entirely selfless act; ever since Jeff and Vicki had come back from Metropolis, they had barely stopped by the house, Vicki seeming off in conversations both in person and over the phone. She was worried that her sister-in-law was hitting a wall, ready to be done with the pregnancy with another three or four weeks left to go until she hit full term. Beth wanted to use Sam as a sounding board as to how she might surreptitiously offer advice without seeming pushy or simply telling her how she dealt with the last stretch of pregnancy. It hadn't been difficult to stop herself from going crazy over Vicki's pregnancy, or at least not too crazy. She had hated when others had tried to impose advice on her or tell her how they had done things and didn't want to do that to anybody, let alone the woman pregnant with her niece or nephew. The mere thought of actually _having_ a niece or nephew still brought a smile to her face like it was a brand new concept rather than something she had known was going to happen for months. When she had observed them together, interacting while Vicki was meeting their group of friends, she had known that they were going to be together for a long time. While she hadn't foreseen them getting married that night, it had been a great surprise. And then when they had decided to have a baby it had almost blown her Beth's mind. She had been _sure_ that Vicki was going to talk herself out of it based on the way she had talked about how she was thinking and external forces pushing her to procreate. But here she was, a month away from being Aunt Beth to a little boy or girl that was going to have a special place in her heart. She knew that she and Jeff were closer than most brothers and sisters, but Beth wanted her niece or nephew to feel like she had doting grandparents, too, since there wouldn't be any to do the doting themselves. Things like this made her miss their mom and dad a little more than she all ready did, serving as a reminder of how much they had lost, like that could ever be unclear. But she wasn't going to let their absence be felt in the life of somebody she would love.

She had been worried about Jeff for so long, that he would ever find somebody like Vicki or have children of his own, that it had felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders the more she had watched them together. She had never wanted to push him to be like everybody else, to conform to social norms as she had heard him put it, but she also hadn't wanted him to miss out on two of the fundamental milestones of life: marriage and children. She had decided in the lead up to his fortieth birthday that she would sit down and talk to him, see if he ever planned to get married or have children, and if the answer was yes she would try and get him to hurry the hell up, as he wasn't getting any younger. If he hadn't planned on marriage or children, she would have made sure that was what he wanted and found a way to make her peace with that, though she hadn't been sure how she would do that. She respected other people living their lives in whatever fashion they chose, but had Jeff not wanted to give her nieces and nephews she knew she would have struggled to deal with that, and she assumed there would have been copious amounts of wine involved. Fortunately for her liver and to the detriment of wine country, Jeff was now married to an amazing woman with a child on the way. Her brother was just something of a late bloomer when it came to two of the fundamental milestones of life.

Stepping into the elevator, Beth pushed the button for the fourth floor, staring ahead at the silver door. It amazed her how much life had changed for everybody involved since Vicki had come into their lives. Jeff's life was totally different, his demeanor so much brighter than it had been for years. She had never seen him like he was with Vicki. In the past he had always been into his girlfriends but he had never been protective, seeming to think they should fend for themselves when it came to integrating into his busy friends and family schedule. With Vicki he had been protective from day one working harder than he ever had to before to help her integrate into their group of friends until it seemed like Vicki had been around much longer than she had. And now whenever she would watch them when he had hands on her, be it on her stomach to feel the baby or simply his hand intertwined with hers. It was something she had always thought she would see out of Jeff but it was better than she had imagined, and it made her happy that he was getting to experience the same things that she and all their friends had experienced. She wasn't all that familiar with his side of a pregnancy, but remembering how happy she had been most of the time during her first pregnancy, how happy Chuck had been, she thought she could extrapolate pretty well.

Exiting the elevator, Beth made her way down the hallway until she got to Sam's office, opening the door and walking inside. Giving a little wave to Erica, Sam's secretary, Beth took a seat near the front of the office, next to the door where she would take people back to her office. Sitting back, she exhaled slowly, her head resting against the wall. Silence was beyond golden now. Silence was platinum. In those rare moments she could turn off her brain and not get caught up in the twelve things she needed to get done or planning the meals for the week, when she could sit in silence and actually relax, that was when silence was at its platinum-value best. She doubted she could enjoy silence so much if Jenny and Liv didn't exist, so maybe this was one more benefit to her children, though not one she would have ever imagined reaping. All the little things she had never taken note of when younger seemed more important, more valuable now, but silence was definitely the one that came to mind first when she hadn't heard it for months on end.

Hearing voices, Beth straightened out a little bit, and as the door opened she smiled, Sam walking out as she conversed quietly with her patient. She was followed by a tall guy in a rumpled suit, who was adjusting his glasses . They both seemed to notice her at the same time, both freezing as Beth noticed who it was that Sam was walking out. "Clark?" she asked, standing up from her seat. What was he doing in Gotham? What was he doing talking to Sam?

"Uh, hi," he said, smiling weakly as he shoved his hands into his pockets.

"What brings you to Gotham?"

"I, um... Perry sent me out here on assignment for a few days." Clark shrugged, adjusting his glasses again as he glanced at Sam. "I used to come to Sam every now and again to talk after we started coming down to Gotham to have some adult time with you guys, Vicki and all the others. When I found out I was going to be in Gotham I thought it would be an opportunity to catch up with Sam, clear my head a little bit."

"Oh, okay. Always good to get the head cleared out. I use her the same way, though fortunately it doesn't cost me anything." Nodding, Beth smiled, genuinely glad that Clark had found Sam to help him out. She had heard from Lois some of what he had been through and wondered how he had been able to handle that kind of stress, considering the quiet kind of guy he was. "How's Lois doing? Vicki told us that she had been shot but was recovering."

Clark smiled then, a much brighter smile. "She's doing well. She went back to work yesterday, though by her tone when we talked on the phone I think she had forgotten that she still wasn't allowed to publish anything for the _Planet_. Working but not writing was bad enough before she got shot. Now it seems even less worth it to her, I think, but she'll power through until October."

"Well good, I'm glad she's all right. I know that her getting kidnaped used to be more of a regular occurrence, based on what Vicki said, but I doubt that makes it any easier. Say, how much longer are you going to be in town? We could call Jeff and Vicki, do dinner at the house tonight if you don't have to work. We'd be glad to have you." Pausing, Beth decided to be honest about her motives behind inviting him to dinner, beyond actually wanting to offer him an evening with friends. "In all honesty, this isn't an entirely selfless offer. The reason I'm here is because I wanted to talk to Sam about Vicki. She's been quieter than usual since she and Jeff went to Metropolis, and I'm worried that she's hitting a wall in her pregnancy." Beth noticed a look shoot between Clark and Sam, which she thought was odd, but wrote it off as nothing. "I don't want to impose advice or empty sayings like 'You're in the home stretch!' on her, which is why I'm surprising Sam for lunch. She usually has good insight on how to be helpful in an inconspicuous manner."

"That sounds great, but I fly out in jut a few hours, so I need to get going. I'm going straight to the airport."

"Oh, well that's too bad. Next time you or Lois are in Gotham call us and we'll get together. You guys are always welcome at the house." Clark smiled and with a nod to Sam walked to the door, exited the office. "I like him. Quiet, and more observant than he lets on, I think, though sometimes I wonder how a woman like Lois ended up with somebody so... well, clumsy and nerdy, to be frank." Shaking her head, Beth looked back to Sam. "So, now that you're free, how about some lunch? I wasn't lying when I told Clark that I wanted to pick your brain about Vicki, see if we might be able to help her see the light at the end of the tunnel without calling it the light at the end of the tunnel, because that never helps."

"Are you sure that's what's bothering her?" Sam asked, motioning for Beth to follow as she walked back through the door. "I'm not sure that it's the end stages of her pregnancy that is on her mind."

By the tone Sam was using, Beth could tell that she all ready knew what it was that was bothering Vicki, but that she wouldn't or couldn't say what it was. "If it's not that, then I wouldn't have any idea as to what's bothering her. Normally she's been forthcoming if something is bothering her."

"Maybe this time she decided to keep things between her and Jeff? It's not like you tell Jeff every single thing that's bothering you." Sam turned and frowned as she shouldered her purse. "Okay, that's a bad example, but I think you should let this lie. Like you said, she's forthcoming when she has a problem that she wants to air out, so if she wants some outside perspective she'll come to you."

Sighing, Beth led the way out as Sam walked around from behind her desk, leading the way in silence until they arrived at the elevators. "You're right, of course. I just... she doesn't have anybody like you and I have each other, or like Becky, Dana and Lily have each other, or even Donovan and Garrett or Jeff and Art. We all need an outlet that isn't our spouse, and I'm worried that she doesn't have that. Maybe she talks to Lois more than I know, maybe they're closer than I think, but I don't want to assume that." Stepping into the elevator, she waited for Sam before pushing the button for the lobby. Remembering Sam's tone from earlier and thinking she probably knew more than she was letting on, she decided to be proactive. "I want to be that for her, that person she can confide in," Beth said quietly, looking over at her best friend. "I told her that I think of her as a sister, and I meant it, but if she needs somebody that isn't her sister-in-law to be her sounding board, be there for her same as you would me. I don't want her to feel like she's left out in the cold with nobody to talk to."

"You're really worried about her, aren't you?" Sam asked quietly as the elevator stopped.

Beth nodded, saying, "She's family, Sam." Leaving it at that as they exited the elevator, they were almost to her car before she spoke again. "So, where do you want to do lunch?"


	36. Chapter 36

- Chapter 36

Trudging into the apartment, Vicki dropped her purse onto the couch as she got to it before lowering herself down slowly. Frowning at her stomach as the baby kicked her a couple times, she shook her head before letting it fall back and rest against the couch. Everybody had told her that she had been carrying the baby low her whole pregnancy but in the last week it had gotten ridiculous. The baby was firmly ensconced deep in her pelvis, and while this was nice in that it had made it easier to breathe, it was causing her to feel constant pressure. It had also given her the gift of a near constant need to pee, to the point where sometimes she thought it would save time to get a glass of water and drink it while sitting on the toilet. Add in swollen feet that made walking annoying, sore joints, leaky breasts and a forced waddle, and she was done. She was ready for her son or daughter to be born so that bodily discomfort could be replaced by sheer physical exhaustion. That was something she had at least experienced before, though she doubted previous experience with exhaustion was any indicator of how well she would cope in the near future. At least then she would be in control of her own body, insomuch as anybody was.

Looking over at the door as she heard it open, she saw Jeff walking in, shooting a small smile at him in response to him smiling at her. "Hey," he said, walking over to plop down onto the couch next to her. "How does it feel to officially be on maternity leave?"

Vicki grumbled for a moment before Jeff started spinning her around so she was laying down, her legs resting on his lap. He started kneading the swollen mess that was her right leg, relieving a bit of the discomfort. "I'm torn about Ryan asking me to start my maternity leave now. On the one hand it will be nice to have some time to spend here to make sure that everything is ready. Would really like to take another pass at the nursery to make sure it's clean."

"We've both cleaned the nursery half a dozen times. If it isn't clean now it never will be. I would chalk this up to nesting, but since I don't want to get punched, I'll just say that you're trying to be thorough, and you've been plenty thorough."

"Be that as it may," Vicki said, tempted to swat him for even bringing up nesting, "better that we've cleaned one time too many rather than one time too few." He was probably right. She hadn't ever been one to obsess over extreme cleanliness, but lately the idea that her baby might come home to an apartment that wasn't spotless made her want to clean the whole place inch by inch, which was made much, _much_ more difficult when carrying thirty-seven pounds of baby weight that stressed out her back. "Now, on the other hand, I don't think my current physical and emotional states are affecting my writing. Admittedly, after finding out why I was having dreams about Chloe I was not writing very well, but I worked through that and was producing some outstanding columns! No need to bench your best player when she's still two weeks from her due date."

"Two weeks from your due date, yes, but you are technically full term now so it could be any day." Jeff switched from her right leg to her left, giving it the same relief he had given her other leg before it. "Could it still be two weeks? Yes. At risk of being done bodily harm, it could still be three weeks, or even four. I've read and have been told that first time moms have a tendency to go beyond their due dates, though I'm not sure if that applies to first time moms that celebrate twenty-ninth birthday anniversaries rather than over thirty-five birthdays."

"If I could sit up, and if you weren't doing such amazing things... oh, hell, I don't care. I'm thirty-eight. It's not like I go around lying about that fact. And I wouldn't do bodily harm to you for telling the truth about it possibly being more than two weeks until I deliver, since that's just the truth of the situation." Stupid truth. If she was forced to spend three or four more weeks with a baby wedged in her pelvis, peeing three or more times an hour and in as much discomfort as she was able to imagine outside of severe injury and rehabilitation, she was going to end up letting loose on Jeff, and she really didn't want to do that. Again. She hated making him the brunt of a tirade that had nothing to do with him. "Let's just hope that our baby decides to come a little before the due date, in the least painful way that can be managed."

"You still intent on having a natural birth?" Jeff asked, and Vicki nodded.

"I would like to do everything in my power to have as little medical intervention as possible, yeah. Not that I have a problem with drugs, epidurals or women using them to make their birth a more manageable affair." Spreading out her hands a little bit and shrugging, Vicki continued. "There's every chance in the world that I may end up using drugs or getting an epidural if it's a prolonged labor. I would be stupid to rule those things out. Just want to do it the old fashioned way if at all possible."

She could see Jeff glancing at her out of the corner of her eye as he continued working on her legs, now doing both at the same time. "You still want to give birth in the tub, don't you?"

"It looked so relaxing!" Vicki exclaimed, thinking back to the video they had watched of a water birth, plus the other videos she had watched online by herself. It hadn't really looked relaxing unless in comparison to some of the other births they had been forced to watch as part of the classes Jeff had signed them up for. She had liked the idea so much that she had gone ahead and registered at a birthing center after her last OBGYN visit the week before, though she hadn't dropped that bomb on Jeff yet. Now was as good a time as any, though. "I went and registered at the Gotham Area Birthing Center earlier this week. Now I know what you're going to say, that you think I would be better off in a hospital should something happen, but my OBGYN has privileges there, and if she can't make it they have two doctors on hand _and_ on call twenty-four hours a day, two operating rooms for emergency c-sections and a NICU. It's just as safe as a hospital would be!"

Waiting for him to start trying to lawyer her with logic and sentences that tried to twist her reasoning into pretzels, she was extremely surprised when all he said was, "All right."

"That's it? You're not going to try and lawyer me out of this?"

"Of course not." Jeff smiled at her before looking back down at her legs. "First off, you're the one giving birth, so unless you want to deliver our baby in the middle of a drum circle out in some field onto a pile of hemp, I'm going to support your decision. Even then I would at least attempt being supportive before I tried to convince you that you had lost your mind. Secondly, that place is roughly fifteen minutes from here and only five from Beth and Chuck's house. Since you are now on maternity leave the majority of your time will probably be spent here or there, which means that either way we're close. I like that. So if that's what you want, I support your decision. You obviously want to do the birth there strongly enough that you did the research, and if I've learned one thing in our near two year relationship, it's that your research is always very, very reliable." Jeff was quiet for a second as he continued his work, now concentrating on her feet more than her calves and ankles. "Plus, once I saw that you were enamored with that water birth video, I assumed that you would want to try a water birth, and found that the birthing center offered that option while none of the area hospitals did."

"How did you know that I was going to want to try a water birth?" Vicki asked, surprised that he had done some of the same research she had.

"One of the other things that I have learned in life is that one should always pay attention to the little things, and especially to the little things that make women sit up and take notice. What made you sit up, or at least take notice since I had to help you up, was the water birth." He smiled again, though this time he didn't turn his head to face her. "It also helped that you left a water birth website up a few weeks ago, and that the birthing center called to confirm your registration last week."

"Oh, you are so damn _sneaky_!" Swinging her legs off Jeff's lap and slowly sitting up, she started pushing him lightly. "Why didn't you tell me that you knew I was registered and was going to try to do a water birth?"

"I knew you would tell me when you wanted to tell me. I figured you were leaning that way after I found the website you had left up, but when the birthing center called and confirmed your registration I figured it was a done deal. I even bought a few pairs of swimming trunks so that I can sit in the tub with you if you want me to. Some of the videos I watched as research weren't real clear if that's standard or personal preference."

"Assuming the tub is large enough, I will most certainly have you in there with me." Pulling his face over gently, she kissed him lightly. "Why would I do something so important like giving birth without my amazing husband there to hold me and help me get through it?"

"A very good question," he murmured before kissing her again. That continued for a moment until there was a knock at the door, leaving them to rest their heads against each other as they attempted to catch their breath. "You expecting anybody?" Jeff asked her, and Vicki shook her head. He popped up off the couch, Vicki sitting back and craning her neck to see if she could see who was at the door as he opened it.

* * *

><p>Shoving her hands into the back pockets of her jeans, Lois looked around for a second as she waited to see if anybody was home. She should have called first, should have told Vicki and Jeff that she was coming, but she wasn't sure that she would have been told that she could come by. It was a lot easier to turn somebody away over the phone, though since she hadn't spoken to Vicki in over a month, despite attempting various forms of long distance communication, she wasn't entirely sure the door wasn't going to be shut in her face. If she was lucky Jeff would answer the door and let her in before talking to Vicki. It wasn't like she blamed her for being mad about the situation and possibly dropping the lion's share of the blame on her head. She was shooting the messenger, a messenger who had used false pretenses to insert herself into her life and befriend her. In this case shooting the messenger was an entirely understandable and justified action. She just hoped that Vicki could remember from her dreams how much she had loved Chloe. If she didn't understand now, maybe she would one day. The door came open slowly, and Lois almost breathed a sigh of relief when it was, in fact, Jeff that was answering the door. He was smiling, but that melted into a look of surprise.<p>

"Lois, hey," he said, stepping aside after a second. "Please, come in."

"Thanks," she said, stepping far enough inside so that Jeff could close the door. Noticing Vicki on the couch, she held up a hand as she moved like she was going to get up. "Please, don't force yourself up on my account. I have a sneaking suspicion that it often feels like more trouble than it's worth." Walking around the couch, Lois took a seat in an adjacent chair, observing as Vicki readjusted her position, settling back into her seat as Jeff sat down next to her. "I'm sorry for dropping in like this but I decided to take a chance since I haven't been able to get a hold of you otherwise."

"Yeah, about that," Vicki said but Lois held up her hand again.

"I don't need you to explain. Processing big information takes time, and the bomb I dropped on you was atomic, not to mention that the timing was awful. You're about to start your family and to find that kind of thing out..." Trailing off, Lois shrugged, unable to find more words beyond that. "I would have left you alone, let you get in contact with me if you chose to do so, but I'm one of those people that would rather have too much information rather than too little." Reaching into her pocket, Lois pulled out a flash drive she had gotten from Bruce before driving to Vicki's apartment from Wayne Manor. She held it up, smiling a little. "I know that this isn't the modern way of transferring information anymore, that it would have been easier had I just uploaded it somewhere and given you a password, but this isn't the kind of thing I want to put out in the ether, just in case."

"What is it?" Jeff asked after a moment of silence, appearing surprised that Vicki hadn't beaten him to the punch.

"This is everything I could collect on Chloe." Setting the flash drive down on the coffee table in front of her, Lois continued. "Every page of every document related to Chloe that was in my possession, every picture from our childhood to not long before the first bombings. In addition, I asked everybody that had known or worked with Chloe in journalism or the nascent Justice League to write what they could remember about her. There are documents in there from Green Arrow, Aquaman, Flash, Cyborg and others, talking about their time with Chloe. Her baby book is in there, somehow having ended up at the farm so it wasn't destroyed when my house burned down. That might be good information to have right about now. Stuff from my dad, my sister, Perry, Ron Troupe and Clark's mom, who over time became a surrogate mother for both her and myself. And then there's something from Clark, who remembers _everything_ about his time with Chloe, and something from me. I may not remember everything, but I remember enough that if there's anything in your dreams that seems confusing, maybe that can help explain it."

"Why are you giving me this? Vicki asked as soon as Lois had finished explaining. "Why couldn't you wait until I came to you? Too much information is preferable, but I wanted to be prepared for it. I finally started putting the Chloe information behind me and now you're dropping this in my lap so I can obsess over it!"

Lois sighed, unsurprised by the outburst. She had readied herself to take a verbal onslaught from Vicki over the situation. "Pretty soon you're going to have somebody in your life that demands your undivided attention, no matter what day it is or what time it is. Your baby will be your whole focus, and should be. I didn't want to wait until you had your baby to give you this and distract you from what should be your priority. This way you have some time if there's information about her that you want. Again, I suggest going through the baby book. Chloe's mom wrote a pretty detailed account of her pregnancy, labor and delivery, which might at least give you a hint at how things might go for you. The pregnancy part probably isn't all that useful anymore, but you can at least see if there were similarities." Standing up, Lois shoved her hands into her pockets. "Like I said, I would rather have too much information than too little, and I'm fairly certain you're the same way. You look great, by the way," she said as she started moving towards the door, "and you're going to be a great mom. If there's anything more you want to know, or if you need a friend, just call. My phone is always on." Walking to the door, Lois wanted to say more, but knew that there was nothing left to be said unless Vicki wanted to hear it.

* * *

><p>Closing the car door, Beth was only a few steps away from her car when the door to Jeff and Vicki's apartment opened and Lois, of all people, walked out. "Lois, hey," she said, smiling at her as she closed the apartment door. "This is the second time this month that I've run into a Kent in Gotham. You guys make Metropolis and Gotham seem a lot closer together than they are."<p>

Lois half smiled but looked away, rubbing at the corner of her eye with a thumb. "Yeah, we're funny like that."

"Are you okay?" Beth asked, surprised to see that Lois looked like she was about to cry.

"Yeah, it's just... Vicki's not too thrilled with me these days." Lois shrugged, exhaling slowly before starting to look more like the Lois that Beth was used to seeing. "Just the way things go, I guess. Hopefully someday she'll decide that I'm not so bad as I sometimes seem. Anyway, I should go. Nice seeing you again, Beth."

"I can try to help, if you'd like." Putting a hand on Lois's arm, she smiled at her, hoping that she could at least offer her some comfort. "I don't know what happened between the two of you, but we all need friends that are our own friends, not friends we inherit by marriage. I don't mind raising that point."

"Thank you, but I wouldn't want what's straining Vicki and I to have any effect on the relationship you two have. You're going to be an even more important part of her life once her baby is born, and I don't want my actions to impact her son or daughter negatively."

"I know I'm prying, but what happened? Something was off with her for a few weeks after she came back from covering the bombings in Metropolis, but I just assumed that she was hitting a wall in her pregnancy. If it's something between the two of you that's at least something that's potentially fixable rather than a waiting game."

Lois glanced at her for a second before looking away, staring off across the parking lot for a moment before speaking. "Vicki had a question that I knew the answer to, and when I told her what the answer was she didn't like what she heard."

"But if you were just answering a question, why would that make her mad at you?"

"Sometimes shooting the messenger is justified," Lois said quietly. "If you want to know more than that, tell Vicki that you have mine and Clark's blessing. Jeff and Sam all ready know, so what's one more?" Lois started chuckling all of a sudden, though it didn't sound like there was any mirth behind it. "Used to be the best kept secret in the world, but the way things are going pretty soon everybody is going to be in on it. It was good seeing you again, Beth."

Lois walked away, leaving Beth alone standing in front of Jeff and Vicki's apartment, confused as to what exactly was going on. What could be the best kept secret in the world, except now Jeff, Sam and Vicki all know? Turning, she knocked on the door, and it didn't take long for Jeff to answer the door. "I just had a very strange conversation with Lois," Beth said as Jeff stepped aside and she walked in. Looking around the living room and seeing that Vicki wasn't there, Beth continued. "She said that she and Vicki had some sort of falling out because she answered a question and Vicki didn't like the answer, and something about shooting the messenger being justified and the best kept secret in the world now being known by you, Vicki and Sam for some reason. She said that you guys have her's and Clark's blessing to tell me what that secret is, but at this point I'm not entirely sure that I want to know. Hello, by the way," she said, trying to smile but not doing so very well because of her confusion.

"Hi," Jeff said, glancing back towards their bedroom before looking back to her. "Lois really said that we have their blessing to tell you about what's going on?"

"Yeah, but if it's going to be some world shaking secret that makes me not like Lois and Clark anymore then I think I'd rather just stay on the outside looking in." Crossing her arms, she was going to let Jeff say something but she spotted Vicki emerging from the bedroom, walking slowly and looking like she was as unhappy as Lois had been when they had talked. "Hey," she said, walking away from Jeff and approaching her sister-in-law. "Is there anything I can do to try to help you feel better? Whether or not you tell me what's going on between you and Lois, I don't like seeing you be anything less than your vibrant self."

"It's not my secret to tell, Beth. I'd love to let you in, see if you have a take on this that I haven't heard but I can't..."

"Lois passed a message to us through Beth," Jeff said from over Beth's shoulder, though she didn't look back at him. She wanted to stay focused on Vicki, though her attention was on her husband at the moment. "She said we have their blessing to let her know what's going on and why it has been bothering you."

"Seriously?" Vicki asked, but didn't hear anything before Vicki nodded and walked over to the couch to sit down. Beth followed her, taking a seat in a nearby chair. "This is something that you can't tell anybody, Beth. Not Chuck, not Jenny and Liv, not anybody in the group of friends. I'm leading with that because if you don't want to hear what we have to say then we should just forget about it now."

That gave her pause. This was going to be something that she couldn't even tell Chuck? What could possibly be such a huge secret that she wouldn't be able to share it with her husband? "Is this something that could come between Chuck and I, because if it is I don't want to know."

Vicki looked back at Jeff, who was still standing behind the couch. They both shrugged before Vicki turned back to her. "I don't see how it would be the kind of information that could come between the two of you. It's world view altering, but not marriage threatening."

"Well that's not ominous at all," Beth said, frowning at herself afterwards.

"I'm going to call Sam while you get her caught up." Jeff leaned down next to Vicki, resting his head against hers. "I think it'll be best if she comes over and we start going through some of the information that Lois dropped off. I know you said that you weren't sure about going through it right now, but I think we need to. If nothing else, we should go through the baby book stuff, see if we can get some insight into what's to come. It may not help, but it can't hurt."

Jeff walked into their bedroom, leaving her alone with Vicki. "There's no easy way to get into this, so it's best I start at the beginning. Lois had a cousin named Chloe Sullivan that I assume you've heard her mention before. Chloe was thought to have been killed in the first bombing of Metropolis. Turns out she wasn't. Here's why that is important."

* * *

><p><em>I spent my whole life worrying about Chloe, sometimes so much so that it became a point of contention between us. I bugged her about getting married after I got married, about having kids after I had my son. Out moms were sisters, and in the limited time that we each had with our moms they imparted to us both how important family is. We had spats, and there were times that we didn't talk very much, either because of those spats or because we were both busy with things in our lives, but we always came back to each other. We could always relate because we saw the world the same way. I'm a journalist because of Chloe, and I'm a great journalist because Chloe and I always competed to be the best. Simply put, there is no Lois Lane, not the one the world knows, without Chloe Sullivan.<em>

Looking up from the screen of her tablet, Sam scanned the room, watching Beth, Jeff and Vicki all reading the same information that she was, though she doubted they had all skipped straight to Lois's memories of Chloe. There was a ton of information to go through, and they had decided to go through it together, but everybody seemed to be focused on something different. Jeff had said that he wanted to read the detailed account that Chloe's mother had written, and that was understandable since they were about to have a baby. Vicki was going through it with him, her body curled up with his as they read together. Beth had confessed to wanting to go through Clark's memories of Chloe, which made sense that in the last hour she had learned that Clark Kent was Superman, Vicki Vale had been Chloe Sullivan and Chloe Sullivan had been an integral part of the Justice League before it was actually the Justice League, amongst numerous other things. Sam herself had only known about Chloe for about a month now and she was still surprised that she hadn't been a more famous journalist akin to her cousin, despite Lex Luthor trashing her name and black listing her.

_My earliest memory of Chloe is of a happy little blonde blur, running around with me and causing mischief, mostly at my behest. Rule breaking is a genetic trait we both get from our moms, who had rebellious streaks that they had inherited from their mother. Must be an X chromosome thing. Anyway, after Chloe's mom split and my mom died, we didn't see each other very much for almost a decade because of my dad dragging me from military base to military base and Chloe moving to Smallville when she was in seventh or eighth grade. We kept in contact, though, talking to each other about our problems on the phone and sending emails back and forth when the phone wasn't a great option. We knew everything about each other, despite barely seeing each other. But Smallville... that's the town that brought us together and changed both our lives beyond anything we could have imagined, and that's where the story really begins._

An hour later Sam finally had to put down her tablet, the strain of staring at the screen forcing her to take a moment to rest her eyes. She was engrossed in what Lois and Clark had written about Chloe, flipping back and forth between what they had written to get both sides of the story. She had initially flipped over to Clark's memories of Chloe to fill in some background from before Lois had gotten to Smallville, but she had gotten engrossed in his detailed accounts of what had happened with the meta humans in Smallville. She couldn't believe some of the things that Chloe had survived. After an hour of reading the accounts, she was only up to Lois making it through the second meteor shower to hit Smallville while Clark and Chloe had been transported to the arctic. If she hadn't known that there was, in fact, a super powered man from another planet that protected Metropolis and Earth she would have assumed she was reading a work of fiction. A really gripping work of fiction. Opening her eyes and blinking a few times, Sam noticed that Vicki, too, wasn't looking at her screen, instead holding her glasses in one hand while rubbing at her eyes with the other. "Any useful information?" she asked, Vicki looking up as she did so.

"Well, that depends on if my labor is anything like Moira Sullivan's, which considering she's my mother, no matter what my memories tell me, I guess there's a decent chance of that happening." Vicki closed her eyes and shook her head a couple times, apparently still getting used to the idea of Vicki Vale and Chloe Sullivan sharing a body the same as she was. "Lois was right about Moira giving a detailed account of her pregnancy and labor. She had the same two week bout of horrible morning sickness that I did, though now that I think about it, Lois told me about that once, obviously leaving the part about her aunt being my mom. Anyway, there's that, and her boobs apparently got crazy big, too. As far as the labor, she went natural, too, and despite me being her only baby gave birth in seven hours, so at least I might have that to my advantage." Vicki turned to Jeff. "What was the over/under on the length of my labor?"

"14 hours. You took the under while Beth, Chuck and I all took the over because Powers babies are stubborn." Despite saying all that, he hadn't looked away from the screen of his laptop, where he was obviously engrossed in something.

"Anyway," Vicki said, looking back to her, "she goes into a lot of details that I won't go on about, mostly because you've had a baby and have a pretty good idea of what she went through. She said that doing it naturally made her feel empowered, though with the amount of detail she describes her labor, I'm not surprised that Chloe was... that _I _am an only child. She seemed to remember every single contraction." Vicki shuddered, and Sam was tempted to offer some comforting words about how the rush of oxytocin once the baby is born helps a woman forget some of the pain from labor, but considering her mother remembered in detail, Sam didn't want to give false hope. Some women were just unlucky like that. "Mostly it's just minutiae, and while I'm usually a fan of minutiae, it's nothing I hadn't heard about before. I just... I wish I could ignore all this. I wish that I was just Vicki Vale, that there wasn't somebody else asleep in my head. It's absurd to even think about, let alone live it! Yet here I am. Lois was right that having too much information is better than having too little, but I wish that there was no information at all."

"Are you still mad at her?" Beth asked.

"I'm mad at the situation more than her, but she's an easy target because I _am_ disappointed that the whole reason she struck up a friendship with me is because she initially thought I was Chloe. What I am angry about is that I have to deal with this shit when I'm about to have a baby."

"You should probably tell her that, then. She looked pretty down when I ran into her after getting here earlier." Beth frowned after a second, looking down. "You know, with all the information I've been bombarded with tonight, I can't even remember why I came over. Wait," she said, holding up a finger as she did so. "I was running errands in the area and was going to invite you guys over for dinner. Speaking of which, despite having made sure that Chuck was going to be available to feed the girls, I have not eaten in about eight hours."

"I could eat," Sam heard Vicki mutter, her glasses back on and back on the screen in front of her.

"Pizza okay for everybody?" Sam asked, and when they all nodded pulled her phone out, knowing what everybody liked. What she also knew was that it was going to be a long night of reading through the information Lois had collected for Vicki, but she was glad that they were all there to help support her, even if none of them knew how to do that. If only they had covered hibernating personalities and how to deal with discovering that you had once been somebody else in her masters psychology program.


	37. Chapter 37

- Chapter 37

Staring out the car window as Clark drove them home from the office, Lois couldn't help but notice that the leaves on the trees were shades of red, orange and brown now rather than the green they had been not very long ago. She still couldn't believe that it was October, let alone October ninth. Every year time seemed to pass more quickly, and ever since she'd had children time seemed to fly faster by the day. Jacob was going to be seven in less than a month. _Seven!_ How the hell was it that her baby boy was in first grade and almost seven years old? She could remember with so much clarity the day he was born, the first time she saw him after the doctor placed him on her chest, the most beautiful little thing she had ever seen. Now he liked to ride his bike with friends, and had even asked about playing soccer or baseball in a league that those same friends played in. She and Clark had been torn about what to do; they both wanted to let him play, and so far he was only fast and invulnerable, but what if he suddenly got super strength during a game? The other kids would be at risk, and Clark couldn't guarantee to be there to protect them.

"What are you thinking about?" she heard Clark ask, and after a second she answered.

"After being kidnapped and laid up while recovering, I missed the first week of September, and even then I was barely ready for it to be September. I was just getting used to that idea and now it's nine days into October! That means Jacob's almost seven, which means not long from then Cass will turn five and right after that Devon will be two. I don't think I'm ready for my babies to be that old, especially my oldest baby." Frowning as she sighed, Lois turned her head to look at Clark, who glanced over at her and half smiled, Lois doing the same back out of habit. It didn't last very long, though, as she decided to share what else was bugging her, the thing that had been in the back of her mind all day. "Her due date is tomorrow, Smallville, and I still haven't heard from her. I thought she might at least have questions, or want some elaboration about one thing or another."

"Are you sure that she's even started reading all the information that you put together for her? Maybe she didn't want to mess with it, instead choosing to ignore the information until later, until after she had her baby and was in a better frame of mind." Clark shrugged as they exited off the highway towards their subdivision. "I wish there was something that I could say to help you feel better, but you've done everything that you can. It's up to Vicki now."

"I'm just afraid that she'll choose to try and forget that Chloe used to exist, that she used to be somebody else. If she does then I'm pretty sure she won't be wanting to see me anymore. How are you supposed to forget a life you barely remember when a reminder of that life is a friend?" Closing her eyes and letting her head fall back against the headrest, Lois sucked in a long breath before letting it out slowly. She needed to get out of her head, to find some way to focus on something else. When she had seen the date after getting into work that morning Vicki's due date had popped into her head out of nowhere, and the rest of her day and been spent wondering if she was still pregnant or if she had given birth whenever her brain had a free moment. Lois thought she might have caught a break with it being a busy day. "What are the odds that the kids aren't rambunctious tonight?"

"Depends on the child, but I'm guessing that all three will be themselves, which means that Cassidy is your best chance at having a calm child. Why don't you put her to bed tonight and I'll take care of Devon and Jacob."

"Thank you," Lois said as they pulled into the long driveway leading up to the house. "I appreciate that, but considering the way Devon has been clinging to me ever since I went missing, I don't know that I'll have the option of skipping bedtime with her." Undoing her seatbelt as Clark parked in front of the garage, Lois got out of the car, slinging her laptop bag over one shoulder and her purse over the other before walking up to the front door, which Clark was holding open for her. Once inside, it didn't take but a few seconds before she heard the sounds of her brood, or at least of Devon, off in the direction of the living area.

"I still can't believe the size of this place," Lois heard Clark mutter behind her, and she couldn't help but smile as she dropped her purse on the little table next to the front door.

"Well, technically you've only lived here for about six weeks, so you've got two more weeks. Two months is about how long it took me to get used to the size of it." When Bruce had told her that he was going to buy them a house in the Grand Mesa subdivision outside of Metropolis, Lois had been in denial about the type of house they would live in once back in the city. Once she and the children had moved in, denial had turned into disbelief that they lived in a house valued in the millions of dollars on two acres of land. Six bedrooms, not including the basement, which was giant. Six full bathrooms and a couple partials, a sun room for Clark... it was basically a house that they could never have afforded, but was perfect for their situation of Clark having to fly off unseen. Bruce had certainly had them in mind when buying this house. "If it takes you longer than another two weeks to stop muttering about how big the house is, then I _will_ have to start teasing you about it. Might even get the kids in on the act."

"I'll keep that in mind." She could almost hear him adjusting his glasses as he rolled his eyes.

As they turned a corner, Lois couldn't help but break out into a smile as Devon caught sight of her and started running, Lois setting down her laptop bag just in time to sweep up her youngest child into a hug. "Well hey there, Devon," she said as her daughter hugged her.

"Mommy!" Devon said loudly right next to Lois's ear, her head jerking away as much it could before shook it, using a hand to rub at her ear. "Missed you."

"I missed you too, Girly," Lois said as she carried her and blinked as the ringing in her ear started to die down a little bit. She was just glad that Devon hadn't missed her more or else she would be deaf in her left ear. Settling Devon on her hip as they approached Jacob and Cass, she found Jacob reading on the floor and Cass coloring at her little table. "How are my other two children doing?" she asked, both of them looking up as if they hadn't heard Devon yell in her ear a moment ago.

"Good, Mommy," Cass said quickly before looking back down to her coloring.

"I'm good, Mommy," Jacob said, flashing her a quick smile, a big bright one bearing a close resemblance to her own, before looking back down to his book. She couldn't tell what it was, but it looked like something for school so she didn't want to interrupt him. It was amazing that at six years old he was all ready better about school work than she had been for most of her academic career, although it was at his age that her mom had died. Bouncing from school to school had made taking her school work seriously a lot more difficult as her school work could be one thing on a Friday and totally different on a Monday because she was starting at a new school. If she had any say, Jacob had switched elementary schools for the last time when they had come back to Metropolis.

Spotting Clark out of the corner of her eye as he walked into the room, she turned and faced him, running a hand over Devon's back as she rested her head against Lois's shoulder. "Anne go home for the night?"

He nodded. "Yeah, she just left. Said goodbye to the kids for the evening when she saw the headlights of the car pulling up the driveway." His head tilted a little, the way it tended to when he heard something in the distance, and there was a gust of wind, but Clark hadn't moved. Well, he had, as he was now holding a ringing phone, but she was used to a gust of wind accompanying his exit to help somebody. Now that he was going out and saving people again, that was once more a constant event in her life. He held out the phone to her, smiling. "The ID says it's Vicki."

Eyebrows shooting up, Lois traded Devon for the phone, Clark taking her and walking towards the other children as she put the phone to her ear. "Vicki, hey," she said, walking out of the living room just in case her children decided to be loud. "How are you?"

"I'm okay. Sore back, sore feet and a sour disposition to go along with Braxton-Hicks contractions that have been coming and going all day but refuse to turn into the real thing. I know this is a weird request for a Thursday night, but do you think you could come to Gotham? I was hoping to talk to you in person, and you have the express travel option at hand."

"Yes, of course I can come out and talk." Lois had to hold back from doing a little celebration dance, and she wasn't going to question why Vicki wanted to talk face to face rather than over the phone. "Give me a few minutes to change clothes but I should be there in about ten minutes."

There was a moment of silence before Vicki spoke. "That's really cool. And weird, considering you're in Metropolis right now."

"You get used to it. See you in ten." Hanging up, Lois stepped out of her heels and picked them up so she could get upstairs more quickly, jogging to the stairs and taking them two at a time before jogging to her bedroom. Slipping out of her work clothes and tossing them in the direction of the hamper, she put on a pair of jeans and an old t-shirt before getting some shoes on. She was about to head out when she remembered that it was October, and despite it being unseasonably warm in Metropolis it was probably cool in Gotham. Walking back into the closet, she grabbed her favorite of Clark's flannel shirts and pulled it on, rolling up the sleeves and tying the bottom so she didn't look like she was a kid wearing an adults clothes. Grabbing a hair tie off her dresser as she exited the room, Lois pulled her hair back into a ponytail as she went back downstairs, grabbing a credit card and ID out of her purse and slipping them into a back pocket before finding Clark where she had left him and the children in the living room. "Hey, I need a ride. Normally I would ask nicely, but Vicki wants to talk face to face and I don't want to keep her waiting."

Clark got up off the couch and walked over to her, his tie loosened and collar button undone. "That can be arranged." Lois blinked and he was in his Superman getup, which still left her a little breathless. She thought it was nice that they were almost a decade into their marriage and longer in the relationship and he still had that effect on her. Jumping up into his arms, Lois closed her eyes and tucked her face into his chest, all too familiar with ending up with a bump on her head after a quick takeoff knocked her against his chest of steel. "You ready?" he asked, and Lois nodded. Next thing she knew she felt herself being lowered to the ground next to Vicki's apartment building. Opening her eyes, she shook off the dizziness that tended to accompany Super travel. She had never investigated it, but she doubted moving that quickly was good for a human's equilibrium.

"Thanks," she said quietly, looking up at him and smiling as she patted him on the chest. "Now go make sure the three haven't found a way to cause mayhem in the last twelve seconds. They are my children, after all." Clark simply raised an eyebrow at her before taking a step back and disappearing from sight. She figured that was an appropriate response to saying that her children could cause mayhem in record time. Taking a second to make sure that her credit card and ID were still pocketed and her hair was still in a ponytail, as on occasion she had been known to lose a hair tie or some other random object on her person in the middle of a super flight, Lois found everything was in order and her equilibrium restored before walking around to the side of the building where the door to Vicki's apartment was. Taking a second to collect herself, Lois knocked on the door, with only a few seconds passing before it opened to reveal Vicki. "Hello again," she said, smiling as she stepped inside.

"Hi," Vicki said, smiling for a second before wincing, a hand going to the top of her stomach. Lois found her eyes going wide as she watched Vicki close her eyes and breathe slowly for thirty or forty seconds before she seemed to relax, checking her watch before shrugging at her. "The last few have gotten quite a bit stronger, and a lot more consistent."

"How consistent?"

"That's four in a row that have been seven minutes apart. I would have mentioned it on the phone but I thought they may slow down or stop again."

Unbelievable. Vicki finally wants to talk and she goes into labor! "Yeah, see, not so much Braxton-Hicks anymore. This is about the time when you want to think about going to the hospital."

"Birthing Center," Vicki said, slipping into some sandals that were next to the door. "And if you don't mind, do you think you could drive me there? Jeff had to work late tonight since he was going to take tomorrow and next week off for when I eventually went into labor."

"Of course." Lois had to take a moment to think about what was happening, trying to remember all the things that Vicki would need. She wasn't used to being on this side of going into labor. "Ok, so, do you have a bag ready?"

"Jeff and I kept one in his car and one in mine, so we're all set. And the directions to the birthing center are set in the GPS, so we're good on that front."

"Excellent. Um... pillow? Pictures? Any other assorted items that I'm not thinking of?" Lois asked as she opened the door for Vicki, taking the keys from Vicki as she settled her purse on her shoulder. Patting her pocket to assure herself that her credit card and ID were still there, Lois was suddenly very glad that she had thought to grab them for a just in case situation.

"I think we're all set." Following Vicki out of the apartment, Lois pulled the door closed, making sure it was locked before following to a nearby car. Opening the passenger door for Vicki, she closed it behind her before walking to the driver's side and getting in. She noticed Vicki start messing with the GPS after she got the car started and was pulling out of the parking spot. She saw a route come up on the screen as Vicki pulled her hand away, a very distinct voice telling her to turn right out of the apartment complex. "You set your GPS voice as _Darth Vader_?"

"No, Jeff set it as Darth Vader as a joke a couple months ago and I didn't ever bother to change it back to the default. It's not like it isn't a cool voice to have giving you directions." It was only a few seconds after she spoke that Lois heard her start sucking in deep breaths before releasing them slowly. Glancing over her shoulder as she merged onto a highway as directed, once in traffic she looked back to Vicki, one eye on her while the other was on the road. She could tell that they were headed away from the city, which made her glad that it wasn't rush hour. "Just under seven minutes," Vicki said. "Guess I should call Jeff, let him know what's going on."

Lois couldn't help the smirk that stole across her face. "Yeah, I hear husbands like to be informed about this type of thing."

"It's odd. I wanted to talk to you tonight about you being part of my life, everything out in the open. I realized as I read more and more of the information and had more dreams in which I was starring as Chloe how much you loved Chloe, and how much she loved you. I mean, I'd heard you talk about her before, and I knew that you loved her, but I don't think I realized how much you loved her until it hit me that you thought you had gotten her back only to find that I wasn't her. I can't imagine what that's like, seeing a dead ringer for somebody you love, somebody you thought you had lost, only to find out that it's not her."

Switching lanes to pass a slow car, Lois licked her lips, trying to decide what to tell Vicki. It didn't take her long to realize that she, too, wanted everything out in the open. "When you told me that Bruce was your friend, I came to Gotham the next day ready to rip him a new one, and I lit into him for hiding you from me. All I ever wanted to know was that Chloe was safe and that she was happy. There weren't always a lot of either of those things in her life once she moved to Smallville. I called him an arrogant bastard for not telling me Chloe had lived through the bombings after saving Jacob and Cass, but once he explained the situation I made a choice to respect Chloe's choice to embrace the life you had made for yourself, to get to know Vicki Vale. It tore me up inside that Chloe wasn't getting to experience your happiness herself, but I knew I couldn't try to take this away. You were a journalist, same as Chloe. You had fallen in love with Jeff and decided to have a baby. When the choice is watch you to live a happy life and be a little part of it or find a way to bring back my cousin who had demons that haunted her and watch her barely live, it's an easy choice, no matter how much I love Chloe." Looking over for a second, Lois smiled. "I meant it when I said that Chloe Sullivan is Vicki Vale, but Vicki Vale is not Chloe Sullivan. You look the same, and at your core there's a lot of Chloe, but the mannerisms and the little things that made Chloe so distinctly Chloe are gone." Noticing Vicki closing her eyes and breathing slowly, Lois looked back to the road and waited until she heard Vicki stop breathing so deliberately. "Phone?" she asked.

"Ear piece is in the cup holder." Grabbing it, Lois quickly got it situated on her left ear as the GPS told her to exit. "I know I'm not her, and I know that I'll never be what you lost. I couldn't be her if I wanted to be, but I would like for you to be part of my baby's life. You will, technically, be one of its few blood relatives on my side of the family, after all, and the only one that knows my baby exists."

Swallowing back the urge to weep tears of joy, Lois checked her mirror before changing lanes to get over into a turn lane. "I would love that." Once they had turned, Lois started recognizing the area. "Doesn't Beth live in this area?"

"Yeah, about five minutes from the birthing center. She'll be the second call you make for me. It should be dialing Jeff now."

Lois could hear it doing just that, and it wasn't long before Jeff picked up. "Vicki, hey. I shouldn't be too much longer. I'm just finishing up a few things and then I'm on the road home."

"You might want to rethink that," Lois said, taking a right as directed by the GPS.

"Lois? What are you doing on Vicki's phone? Is everything okay?"

"Vicki is fine, but it's a more painful version of fine than she's used to." Vicki pointed at a building down the street just as Lois heard the GPS telling her that it was coming up on the right. "Vicki called me to talk tonight, but as it turns out your baby decided she had other plans. We're just arriving at the birthing center now."

"Okay. Tell her I'll be there as soon as I can, and that I love her."

"Will do," Lois said before tapping the button on the side of the ear piece to hang up. "Jeff's on his way and loves you. Clark always likes to say 'I love you' a lot, but he went overboard with it during the two labors he was present for. Not sure if that's him or just a guy thing in general." Spotting a parking spot right in front of the building, Lois got the car parked and had retrieved Vicki's bag from the backseat before helping her out of the car. "I'm curious as to why you chose a birthing center," Lois said as they slowly walked towards the front door of the building. "Not that I'm judging, as I gave birth to Devon in a birthing center, but that was because they didn't do any blood tests. As you can imagine, given her father it was best to avoid that type of thing."

"One would think so, yeah," Vicki said as they walked inside. "The reason I decided on a birthing center is because it offers the option of a water birth, which is what I'm going to do."

"Really? I did a water birth with Devon, but that was because the midwives suggested it as a way to be a little more relaxed near the end of labor, and said that being born into water was an easier transition for the baby. Not sure that I believe there's anything easy about being born, and I know there's nothing easy about it on the mom side of things, but it was a little more relaxing. For me, anyway. Let's hope it helps you out, too." Arriving at the front desk, Lois flashed a quick smile at the nurse. "Vicki Vale Powers," she said, pointing at her as she did so.

The nurse nodded and started typing on her computer, asking, "How far apart are your contractions?"

"Just under seven minutes."

"Has your water broken?" Lois shook her head as she heard Vicki say no. "Have you called your OBGYN?"

"She has not, no," Lois answered when she noticed Vicki was doing her breathing thing again. "The only person we've informed is the father, who is on his way. I assume that you can contact the OBGYN for her?"

The nurse nodded, and without looking up continued. "What is your name and relation to Mrs. Powers?"

"Lois Lane Kent and I'm her..." Trailing off, Lois found herself at a loss for what to say. The nurse had asked the million dollar question without even realizing it. She didn't want to presume and say cousin, but at the same time she almost didn't want to presume and say friend, as Vicki had invited her back into her life but they hadn't exactly reestablished a friendship yet. There was still a lack of definition, leaving Lois without an answer to the question.

"She's my cousin." Her head snapping to the side to look at Vicki, Lois found herself swallowing back tears again, working her jaw in shock as she tried to find words but kept coming up empty. All she could do was smile tremulously at Vicki, who smiled back. The nurse came around from behind the desk and started guiding Vicki back through the halls, Lois taking Vicki's phone from her and following a few steps behind, calling Beth and letting her know what was happening while Vicki changed into a gown and got checked out by the nurse. When she was given the okay to go in, she found Vicki starting a contraction, this one lasting longer than any of the previous ones had, going over fifty seconds before it began to let up.

"You didn't have to tell the nurse that I'm your cousin," Lois said as she sat down next to Vicki's bed once the tightness in her face ebbed.

"Another thing I was going to talk to you about is the idea of family. People don't get to choose the family they're born into, but they do get to choose the family they make later on. I have Jeff, Beth, Sam... I don't really have anybody in my life that started out mine, though I'm technically in the middle of my uterus changing that. Anyway, I know that everybody has embraced me and that Beth tells me she loves me whenever we talk, but it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't married into it. Don't get me wrong, I'm okay with that, and am amazed at how they've embraced me. It doesn't mean they love me any less, and I've come to be as close to Beth as I've ever been to anybody besides Jeff." Vicki smiled for a second, adjusting her position in the bed as she did so. "But I want to be selfish. I told you before about how I want the happiness everybody else has. Well now that's not just limited to husband and baby. I want the whole package. Maybe it's because I'm about to become part of a family, forever, or maybe it's because I realized how much you and Chloe loved each other, how much love I felt when I was Chloe in my dreams, and how much it must have hurt to strike up a friendship with her doppleganger to make sure that her replacement was happy. I'm not Chloe, but I want to feel the familial connection that Jeff has with Beth, at least to a degree, and you're my closest chance at that. So if you'll have me-"

"Of _course_ I'll have you. Are you kidding?" Lois asked, unable to help but laugh a little at the idea that she would reject this chance. "I would have been giddy had you simply said that you wanted to resume our friendship. This... this is a better option than I ever could have imagined!"

"Good, I'm glad. Now, on a more immediate note, I know it was in the information you gave me, but my brain isn't working at top efficiency right now, so do women in our family have a history of long or short labors, or is it varied and there no telling how much longer and more painful this will get?"

Lois didn't have it in her to tell her that there was quite a bit more pain to come, but she could at least give her some good news. "Actually you're in luck, because my mom had me in nine hours and my sister in six, Aunt Moira gave birth to Chloe in seven hours, and my children were born in eight hours, seven hours and five hours. I don't know how big they told you they think your baby is, but let me tell you, my last was over nine pounds and to squeeze that out in five hours was _tough_. It was faster, so hooray, but she was two pounds bigger than either of my other two, in a hurry and willing to use her head as a battering ram. Unfortunately I think that was a preview of things to come with her, the impatient little bugger. I love her like crazy, but pretty sure she's going to turn out to be my clone." Hearing footsteps approaching, Lois looked back over her shoulder to find Jeff walking in, looking every bit like a guy that had hurried over from work. Getting up, she let him sit down in the chair as Vicki started having another contraction. Slipping out of the room, Lois pulled her phone out of her pocket and checked the time before calling Clark's cell rather than the house, just in case Devon had conked out early.

Three rings in Clark picked up. "You need me to bring you home all ready? That's can't be good."

"Actually, I don't," Lois said, unable to stop herself from smiling as she leaned back against the wall just outside the room. "Vicki went into labor. We talked about a few things between her contractions and I'm going to stay until she gives birth." Spotting Beth walking down the hallway, Lois waved and pointed into the room, Beth smiling and walking inside with a quick wave. "She told the nurse that I'm her cousin, Smallville."

"What? Why? Is she remembering more stuff?"

"I don't know specifically what more she has remembered through dreams, but whatever it was seemed to make her realize how much Chloe and I loved each other, made her feel it instead of hearing me talk about it. And on top of that, she wants to have her own family members! She's not Chloe, but to have Vicki in my life, to get to be close to her... this is a good day, Smallville," she said, shaking her head. "This is a _really_ good day."

* * *

><p>Trying to ignore the crushing grip Vicki had on his hand as she went through yet another contraction, having had less than a minute to recover since the last one, Jeff could only watch her as she tried to breathe steadily. She was doing an amazing job of it as far as he could tell, not that he had a frame of reference. He had been in the hospital but nowhere near the delivery room when Beth had given birth to Jenny and Liv, figuring his job of being Uncle Jeff didn't start until the babies were born and ready for public viewing. This was something more of an intense experience than that had been. He was still waiting, but watching Vicki endure hours of labor had been a much more trying experience than sitting in the waiting room with various friends. Looking over as he heard footsteps coming into the room, Vicki's doctor came to the bed as Vicki started relaxing, at least as much as she could relax. The doctor started pulling on a latex glove, saying, "I'm going to check you real quick, Vicki" Looking back to Vicki, she was just staring at the ceiling, the hand that he wasn't holding wiping some sweat off her forehead. "Almost eight centimeters, one hundred percent effaced, +1 station. Congratulations, you've made it to transition. Now the real work begins."<p>

"_What_?" Jeff said, hearing Vicki say the same thing at the same time.

"Yeah, that's usually the reaction I get from first time parents."

"Oh God, another one," Jeff heard Vicki say through gritted teeth, her grip tightening on his hand again.

"Once this contraction is over," he heard the doctor say, looking up at her as Vicki did her breathing, "we should go ahead and get her in the tub. It should offer a little relief. Are you going to get in with her?" Jeff nodded, looking back to Vicki as he heard her breathing change, seeing that she was also nodding. "Ok, then once we get her in there you should go ahead and get changed." Once Vicki's grip started to relax Jeff stood up, helping Vicki up and off the bed. He slowly guided her over to the tub, pulling off her gown for her before helping her get in. As she slowly lowered herself into the water she let out a long sigh, Jeff letting go of her arm once she was settled, resting on her legs with her arms draped over the side of the tub. Walking over to the bag Vicki had brought, he dug out the pair of swim trunks stuffed at the bottom and was about to walk into the bathroom to change when he felt a hand on his back. Turning, he found the doctor standing behind him. "Transition can last fifteen minutes or more than an hour," she said quietly, "but in my experience it's when most women hit the wall. Mental and physical exhaustion hit like a ton of bricks because transition is another level of intensity. Vicki's going to feel like it will never end, but she's progressing well, and is going quickly for a first time mom. You need to be prepared to talk her through it, tell her she's strong enough to keep going."

"Yeah, of course," Jeff said, glancing over the doctor's shoulder to see if he could spot Vicki, but the angle was wrong. "That's why I'm here. Nobody knows how strong she is better than I do, and I won't let her forget it."

* * *

><p>Standing next to Beth outside of Vicki's room, Lois crossed her arms over her chest, trying not to yawn as Beth did. Jeff's sister was standing on one side of the closed door while Lois stood on the other, and Lois thought that neither could be accused of being relaxed, yawns or not. Others from their huge group of friends had stopped by through the evening, all excited but none deciding to go the distance. Sam had lingered the longest before asking Beth to call her in the morning because she had an early patient whose appointment she didn't feel comfortable canceling. Letting her eyes drift shut, she let her head rest back against the wall. "This is worse than being the one in labor," she muttered. Realizing what she had said, Lois opened her eyes and looked over at Beth, who was smirking at her. Lois shook her head and checked the time on her phone, finding that it was nearly 3am. "Christ, I must be more tired that I thought for that sentence to have made it out of my mouth."<p>

"You're not used to being the one waiting for a baby to be born, are you?"

"No," Lois said, standing up straight so she wasn't tempted to close her eyes and rest her head against the wall again. That only led to saying things that weren't true. "I don't have many friends. Well, any friends, really. I have acquaintances, such as other parents at my son's school or in my older daughter's playgroup, but friends? My best friend was always Chloe. I had actually thought I would be in the room when she gave birth. She was in the room with me when I had my son."

Beth looked over at her, "I thought I read in that glut of info you gave Vicki about Chloe and her family history that you have a sister, and a niece. Didn't you have to wait then?"

Frowning, Lois recalled the morning that Lucy had given birth, or at least her side of that morning. "No, I did not. She went to the hospital around 6am and had given birth by 9am. I didn't hear about it until my brother-in-law, who was a photographer for the _Daily Planet_, came into the office to get Clark and I in person. No morning sickness, she looked amazing throughout her pregnancy and had a three hour labor. I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as karma because after some of the exploits of her youth, she deserved, like, 23 hours of labor. Not that I would actually wish that on her, of course," Lois said, shrugging, "but the saying 'You reap what you sow' does not seem to apply to her in a karmic sense."

"I know faster than usual labors run in your family, but three hours? Jesus." Lois couldn't help but nod as Beth sighed. "I did nineteen. _Twice_. I can't imagine giving birth in less than ten hours, let alone in three. That's absurd."

"Yeah, well, my sister caught a serious break. If she ever decides to have another baby and it all goes that smoothly and quickly again, I will be _convinced_ that karma is nothing more than wishful thinking."

* * *

><p>"I'm done. I can't do it anymore." As Vicki relaxed back against him, Jeff's fingers entwined with hers, he felt her shaking, which had been happening for the last ten or fifteen minutes. The doctor had told them that it was perfectly normal, same as when Vicki had thrown up after a contraction a few minutes ago. Knowing how taxing birth could be after all his female friends and his sister had looked absolutely spent was a different animal than watching Vicki shake uncontrollably and throw up over the side of the tub.<p>

"I love you," he said quietly, his mouth next to her ear. "I love you so much, Vicki. You're the most amazing woman I've ever met, and the strongest woman I've ever met. You've taken on crime organizations all over Gotham and are still here and kicking. The only other person that can say that and who has had the same success you have is Batman, so having a baby? Just another day for you."

"Quit with the bullshit, Jeff. It's too hard."

"You haven't quit anything since I met you. You're almost there. It's a marathon, and based on how quickly your labor is going your doing the twenty-six miles on a bike. Plus, you're going to be the only one to win the over/under because Beth, Chuck and I all took the over. As competitive as you are, I think that's a hell of a goal to achieve. Plus, you know, actually having the baby."

"I love you, Jeff, but that is the dumbest reasoning I've ever heard."

She tensed up again after that, her grip tightening as another contraction started. Hearing her start grunting as the contraction progressed, which was new, the doctor walked up to the side of the tub, taking a knee next to it. Waiting for the contraction to end, she smiled at Vicki as she relaxed back against him again. "Your contractions are a little more spaced out and it sounds like you're pushing."

"Huh?" Vicki said as she took long deep breaths, sounding to Jeff like she was trying to catch her breath.

"Involuntary pushing. Completely normal." The doctor reached down into the water to check Vicki, only taking a second before she smiled a little wider and pulled her hand back out. "Congratulations. You're fully dilated and the head is at +3. Are you feeling any urge to push during contractions?"

"What does it feel like?"

The doctor chuckled quietly as she stood up and pulled the glove off her hand. "You'll know it when you feel it."

"Wait!" Vicki called out, beating Jeff to the punch. "I don't know how to push."

"I prefer to let women do physiological pushing rather than coached pushing. The counting to ten, the potential for burst capillaries in your face... I only do that if a woman is pushing but not getting much out of it. Your body knows how to push. All you have to do is follow your urges." The doctor walked to the other side of the room, picking up a chart and writing something on it, leaving them to stare at her.

"You're giving birth in a tub and your doctor says that she isn't going to coach you through pushing, that your body will know how to do it." Looking back at Vicki, whose head was resting against his shoulder, he said, "Are we hippies who weren't aware of it, or do you just have a hippie doctor and you didn't tell me?"

"No, this is news to me, too."

"Outstanding."

* * *

><p>"All right, Vicki, the baby is starting to crown. Next contraction give it everything you've got. Dad, are you going to come around and catch the baby?"<p>

Looking up at the doctor, Jeff couldn't hide his surprised at what she had just asked him. Vicki really had found some hippie OBGYN. That, or the medical profession was a lot different when it came to delivering babies than he had always imagined. "I wasn't aware that was an option."

"If it's okay with mom, then as long as the cord isn't around the neck you should be fine. Just come around to the side here, and once the head is delivered I'll let you take over." She apparently could see how he was handling the idea and winked at him. "Don't worry, I'll talk you through it."

"Go ahead Jeff," he heard Vicki say, and as he collected his thoughts he moved out from behind her to the side, now getting a full view of what exactly was going on down there. There was a mirror mounted just outside the tub so they could watch, but he had been focusing on talking Vicki through it rather than staring intently at her vagina.

All at once, Jeff thought it might be the most beautiful and one of the strangest things he had ever seen. A fleeting thought of calling it disgusting went through his mind, but that was a word he refused to associate with the birth of his child. Hearing grunting again, he didn't look up this time as Vicki got louder, the head slowly emerging. "Okay Vicki, breathe now instead of pushing. I know your body is telling you to push, but breathe." The doctor reached into the water, a hand under the head as it turned towards him and he caught sight of his child's face. He'd never seen anything more beautiful in his life. "All right, dad," the doctor said, pulling her hands away. Move around here." Jeff did as instructed, moving closer to Vicki. "Keep one hand under the head and rest the other against Vicki's perineum. Let the baby stay under water for a few seconds once its out before lifting it up and onto mom's chest, okay?" He could only nod, still transfixed on the baby's face as he put his hands where instructed. Hearing Vicki grunting loudly again snapped him out of it and he watched as the shoulders slowly emerged, and then the rest of the little body followed. Making sure his hands were properly placed, he waited as long as he could make himself before he lifted the baby out of the water. "Oh my God," he said quietly as a strong cry rang out a few seconds after removing the baby from the water, tears starting to blur his vision as he smiled.


	38. Chapter 38

- Chapter 38

As Jeff placed their baby on her chest, Vicki couldn't believe what she was seeing. How had she not known that this little person had been missing from her life? "We have a son," she said quietly as she stared at her beautiful baby boy, her hands gently resting on him. "Our little boy," she said through a little hiccup as she looked up at Jeff. She could see the same tears on his cheeks that she could feel on her own. Listening to their son cry, Vicki thought it was the most beautiful sound she had ever heard, coming from the most perfect baby boy in the world.

"Time of birth, 4:14am," she heard the doctor say to a nearby nurse. "Congratulations, you two," she then said to them, but Vicki couldn't look up, couldn't peel her eyes away from her son. "Does he have a name?" she asked, and this time Vicki nodded, but she still couldn't look away.

"Henry. Henry Vaughan Powers," she said, looking up at Jeff. They had finally settled on the first name for a boy the week before, and as she looked down at her son again she couldn't help but feel that it really was perfect. Her son, Henry Powers. She was surprising Jeff with the Vaughan. That had been the name of his father, and Vicki had thought it a perfect middle name. While Jeff had kept suggesting middle names, Vicki had all ready decided on Vaughan, wanting to surprise him with it. He smiled a little more widely at her before leaning over and kissing her on the forehead before doing the same on Henry's little forehead.

"How is Vaughan spelled?" the doctor asked, and Jeff taking care of that as Vicki continued to stare.

"I'm going to take him for a couple minutes to weigh and measure," the nurse said quietly, and Vicki nodded. The nurse slipped her hands underneath him and pulled him away. She hadn't even noticed that the umbilical cord had been cut, she had been so wrapped up in him. God, she had a _son_. Vicki accepted help from Jeff in standing up, taking it slowly; she was sore in places on her body that had never been sore before, but all she could think about was Henry. Stepping over the side of a tub, she accepted a towel from a second nurse, wrapping it around her shoulders as Jeff helped her walk to the bed. Easing into it, she took a minute to find a comfortable way onto the bed, only to have to get into a position that was less than comfortable to deliver the placenta. And then the nurse was at her bedside, holding a bundled Henry. She placed him in her arms and suddenly Vicki fell in love all over again. "Seven pounds, thirteen ounces and twenty inches long," she told them.

"I love you," she heard Jeff murmur in her ear, and she said it back to him, glancing up to smile widely before she looked back down at Henry. She couldn't get enough of him.

"Do you want to see if he'll nurse?" the nurse asked, making Vicki blink and remember that it wasn't just her, Jeff and their son. "He's more alert and awake right now than he will be later, and it'll help him get a good start." Nodding, Vicki made sure she had Henry cradled in the crook of her arm securely before pulling the cup of the left side of her bathing suit top to the side. It took a few minutes of coaching by the nurse on how to best position him so he could easily latch on and how to recognize that he was rooting around for her nipple, but once he got started he seemed more than ready for a big first meal.

"Wow," she said, trying to watch Henry nurse while also trying to smile at Jeff. "You would think that I would find it strange that I'm my son's source of food, but it's amazing." The amazing qualities of the moment was suddenly interrupted by a contraction, making Vicki close her eyes for a second before it let up. "Ow," she muttered.

"Getting the baby started nursing is also a good way to encourage your uterus to contract so that the placenta detaches and can be delivered," the nurse said as she stepped back over to Vicki's bedside. "Let me know when you start feeling like you need to push." It was only a few minutes later that Vicki delivered the placenta, her doctor declaring that it looked good before going back to writing down notes on her chart.

"I'm going to dry off and change clothes, then I'll bring in Beth and Lois, okay?" Jeff said quietly, Vicki nodding with a smile before looking back down at Henry, who now seemed to be sleeping peacefully.

"I love you, Henry," Vicki whispered, lifting him up to kiss his forehead. She couldn't believe how much she loved him. He was less than an hour old but she loved him more than she had loved anything in her life. "I can't promise that I'll be a perfect mom, but I will always do the best I can, and so will your dad. You're our son, our little boy, our baby. And now you've got me rambling and sounding all sappy," she said through a smile as he blinked at her. "But that's okay. I think a little happy, sappy rambling is in order, because I finally get to meet you, and you're beautiful."

* * *

><p>Standing next to Beth on the other side of the hallway, they both stared at the door to Vicki's room. The last time the doctor had gone inside, half an hour earlier, she had told them that Vicki was pushing and that it shouldn't be too much longer, but nobody had come or go from the room since, meaning they were left hanging, without even information. This was not a position that Lois liked to be in, and from the way Beth was bouncing on her toes, Lois could tell that she wasn't too fond of it either. "What are you thinking?" she asked Beth, continuing to stare at the closed door. "Girl or boy?"<p>

"I'm going to fall back on the old wives tale that you carry a girl high because she wants to be close to mom's heart, and you carry a boy low because he wants to be close to mom's girl parts, and then do the opposite. Vicki carried low her whole pregnancy, so I'm saying it's a girl."

"I was leaning boy anyway, and it's no fun agreeing. I got the same vibe from as I felt I gave off when I was pregnant with my son." Grinding her teeth together, Lois decided to throw another topic out. "Over seven and a half pounds or under?"

"Over."

"Same," Lois said. "Hair or bald?"

"Powers babies have a history of hair, so I'll go that way."

"Then I'll go bald, since I think it'll be a boy anyway and my own son was born sans hair." Uncrossing her arms and shoving her hands into her pockets, Lois tried not to start bouncing like Beth was. "Is it just me, or has the definition of 'anytime now' changed?"

"It does seem to be stretching out, yeah." Beth moved away from her spot against the wall and started pacing. "I don't remember being this nervous when waiting for all my friends to have babies, though admittedly I wasn't waiting outside the room. I've always thought of the children of my friends as family, but this is my actual niece or nephew being born."

"Yeah, I assume it's different when it's family involved." Lois didn't get a chance to say anything more than that because just then the door to Vicki's room opened and Jeff walked out, smiling ear to ear.

"I have a perfect, healthy son," he said quietly before getting wrapped up in a hug by Beth, who started squealing.

Lois allowed her eyes to slide closed and her head to fall back against the wall as she smiled. _You have a son, Chloe,_ she thought. _I'll watch out for him since you can't. I love you._ Opening her eyes again she pushed away from the wall as Jeff approached her, finding herself pulled into a strong hug. "Congratulations, Jeff." He released her, still wearing the big grin as he showed them into the room, and Lois didn't think she had seen many things as peaceful or as amazing as Vicki holding her son, gazing down at him as she murmured quietly. When she finally looked up, after the three of them had watched her for fifteen or twenty seconds, she motioned for them to come closer. She looked utterly spent, but as happy as Lois could ever remember seeing her, or Chloe.

"I want to introduce you two to Henry Vaughan Powers," she said quietly, Lois walking around to the far side of the bed as Jeff and Beth both got close on the other side. "I've been calling him my beautiful baby boy, as he's the most beautiful little thing I've ever set eyes on."

"He is very beautiful, just like his mom," Lois said quietly as Jeff gently scooped Henry out of Vicki's arms so he could give Beth a closer look at him. She almost laughed as she realized that she was calling a baby boy beautiful because he took after his mom. Probably the last time in his life she would do that. She smiled and ran a hand over the top of Vicki's head before kissing it gently. "You did well, Vicki. I'm proud of you."

"Yeah?" she asked, looking up with a smile.

"Of course." Kissing the top of her head again, she couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes. "Sorry about the head kissing, but this is what you get with me as a cousin. My kids have turned me into a hugging and kissing machine."

Vicki nodded as she looked back towards Jeff and Beth, Lois doing the same and finding Beth holding Henry's face close to her. "I think I get that now. All I want to do is hold him close and stare at him, memorize his little features and kiss the end of his nose." She quirked her head to the side but kept smiling. "That last one sounds a lot weirder out loud than it did in my head."

"New babies tend to do that to you. I'm not a rambler, but every time somebody put one of my babies in my arms for the first time I would start rambling like crazy lady. That, and babbling. I babbled for days, talking to them about how much I loved them." Stopping as she watched Vicki yawn widely, she noticed Beth slowly making her way around the bed, bringing Henry over to her. Getting him transferred into her arms gently, Lois fell in love as she looked at his little face, even more than she had when watching Vicki hold him. This was Chloe's son. She might not be present to see him, but he was her son, the same as he was Vicki's and Jeff's, and that meant she loved Henry like he was her own. "Hi," she said quietly, smiling as he shifted then closed his eyes again. "Little guy's had a busy night," she said, looking up, and she could tell that Vicki was fading fast but was trying to stay awake. "I know he's brand new and you want to do nothing but hold and watch him, but you should get some shuteye. You've been through an emotionally exhausting night, and one of you is probably pretty physically exhausted, too. Add in that it's just after 5am and that Henry's peaceful, something that I promise will not last, and it's a good time for a nap." Looking to Jeff, she nodded for him to sit down. "You too, dad. Beth and I will keep an eye on this guy while you guys catch your first parent-length nap. We'll wake you both in an hour to make sure you don't try and start this adventure in a rested state."

"Are you sure?" Jeff asked, but she could tell he was ready for at least a little sleep. He sat down and reached out, taking Vicki's hand into his as they started smiling at each other.

"Yeah," Beth answered. "You two rest. You've got two happy aunts here to take care of things for a little while. Quick tip: you should _always_ take advantage of that." That was all the more convincing they needed and eyes quickly slid closed, leaving Lois with Beth to watch over baby Henry. "Did you and Vicki work through what was bothering her?"

Lois nodded, smiling down at Henry before looking up at Beth. "Turns out there wasn't really anything to work out, at least not on my side. She asked me to be her family, to be her cousin. It's not that she's unfulfilled with being part of your family, but she said she's going to be selfish, that she wants the whole package when it comes to having family. Until meeting this little guy, I thought that would be the highlight of my year, but god... I had forgotten what it's like to fall in love, instantly and unconditionally, and it hasn't even been two years since my youngest was born."

"It's a beautiful thing, isn't it?"

"It really is," Lois said quietly. "You, Henry Powers, are technically my cousin, but I want you to think of me as your Aunt Lois. I love you like crazy, little guy, because you're my family, and family is what counts in this world." Looking up at Beth, she smiled before looking down. "You're going to come to find out that you've got a BIG family on your dad's side and some oddities on your mom's side, but we'll fill you in on the details later. Right now you can just take it easy and soak in all the love coming your way." Crossing the few steps to Beth, she got him transferred into her arms. "I'm going to call Clark, let him know the good news."

"You think he's awake?" Beth asked, though she was staring down at Henry the same as Lois had been a moment earlier.

Lois glanced around the room, making sure no nurse or doctor was still lingering or had come in and she hadn't noticed. "He doesn't require a lot of sleep, and I bet he decided to keep an ear on the city while waiting to hear from me, maybe get some work done if it's a quiet night in the city and the house." Seeing Beth look up, Lois could tell by the look on her face that they had, in fact, told Beth about Clark's heritage. She had thought they would when she'd given them the blessing to do so, something she'd had to confess to Clark afterwards. She had expected him to be exasperated, but he'd understood, resigned to the fact that what had once been the biggest secret in the world couldn't stay that way, at least not as much as he would have liked. She knew he worried that should somebody slip they would become a target, but he didn't want his secret coming between people, which at least gave him some peace, knowing that it wouldn't be something to come between Vicki or Jeff and Beth.

"Thank you for letting them tell me. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to let that information be known , and it means the world to me that you trust me that much."

Lois looked down at the floor, not wanting to confess that she had basically made the decision on the fly, not giving much forethought to the subject beyond that she didn't want Vicki to have to lie to Beth any more than she had wanted her to have to lie to Jeff. "Even if you weren't all ready a friend, and a great in-law that isn't technically an in-law, you're important to Vicki, and that means you're important to us."

"Still, that's going the extra mile, and then a few more miles afterwards." Lois got a few steps towards the door to go call Clark before Beth spoke again. "Hey, are you planning on staying the whole weekend?"

"I hadn't really thought that far ahead, or ahead at all. I came to Gotham to talk and ended up getting a nephew, too."

"Well, if you do want to stay then I'd be happy to lend you a room. I'm sure you can take care of clothes as needed, with a little help from your guy." Beth smiled up at her. "I imagine that has to be a perk of loving him. Had the same thing happened to me as has you, I'd have Chuck driving some clothes to me, or I'd be buying some."

"You don't mind me crashing in your basement for a couple days?"

"Technically an in-law or not, you're Vicki's family and that means you're my family. There's no distinction in my mind. Family is family." Beth grinned before looking down at Henry, starting to talk to him as he continued to sleep in her arms. Lois smiled before leaning down, giving Henry a quick peck on his tiny, beautiful head before walking out of the room, pulling her phone out of her pocket and dialing Clark's cell. It didn't take long for him to answer.

"Boy or girl, and how in love are you?" he asked, and Lois smiled as she walked slowly down the hallway.

"It's a boy, his name Henry Vaughan Powers and I am totally in love, Smallville. I couldn't love him more if he was ours." She couldn't help the smile she was wearing as pulled a stray hair out of her eyes. "She may not be here for it, but Chloe makes a beautiful baby."

"Like you ever had any doubts."

"You make a good point, though I doubt I could ever consider a baby related to me as anything but beautiful. The genetics in my family are very good and I love easily. Well, I love babies easily. Took a little more work with you." Stopping at the end of the hall and turning around, Lois started walking back to Vicki's room slowly. "Look, Beth offered to let me stay at her house for the weekend, so if it's not too much to ask..."

Clark started chuckling and Lois glanced at her phone before putting it back to her ear. "When you called me earlier to tell me Vicki had called you her cousin and that you were staying for the birth, I went ahead and called my mom and asked her if she could come stay at the house this weekend. Since we both have Fridays off anyway at least I don't have to call Perry and tell him I won't be in. That was never fun."

"It really wasn't, and thank you, Smallville. I'm sorry to abandon you like this."

"You kidding? I always thought it would be this way once Chloe had a baby, and I thought you'd probably find a way to do it for Vicki, too. Now that she's calling you family, it's the same situation going by a different name."

"Still, I am sorry to bail on you out of the blue. Tell the kids I love them when they get up." Realizing that she had forgotten to ask him about clothes for the weekend, she cut him off as he started to respond. "Oh, and my pre-packed travel bag in the closet! I need you to drop it off for me. I'll text you the address of the birthing center and Vicki's license plate. I still have her keys, so I'll unlock it so you can just drop it in the back seat while doing your thing."

"I'll be waiting patiently for the information."

Rolling her eyes at the sarcasm in his voice, Lois found herself back at Vicki's room, glancing inside and seeing Beth sitting in a chair, cradling Henry against her body. "Don't worry, Clark. You know how much I love to reward your thoughtfulness, and how often I love to do so. If you weren't so good in bed I'd be annoyed at how thoughtful you are, in addition to being thankful. As it is, I'm thankful for the thoughtfulness and the amazing way you make love. I'll see you Sunday night, Smallville. Love you."

"Love you too, Lo."

Walking back into Vicki's room, Lois found that both of the new parents were still sleeping, and also still holding hands, which Lois thought was nice. Making her way to Beth, she found that her fellow aunt was starting to fade, and she couldn't blame her. It was after 5:30am, and she doubted that Beth had slept in any longer than Lois had the previous morning. "Why don't you let me take him. You can go home, maybe catch some sleep, or at least grab a shower and some coffee."

"You don't mind?" Beth asked, standing up slowly as she did so.

"Not even a little bit. I want to tell the little guy about his mom, make sure he knows that he comes from good people." Beth didn't argue, and after getting Henry settled in her arms, Lois sat down in the chair Beth had been occupying.

"I think I will try to catch a few hours of sleep. Not sure I'll be able to, since my girls will be up in..." Beth checked her phone and frowned. "Less than an hour. Yeah, nevermind about the sleep. Shower and coffee it is. You want me to bring you some?"

Lois shook her head. "Thanks, but ever since coffee was used to drug me so I could be kidnapped I've soured on it. If you have any energy drinks I would happily take some of those."

"I don't have any at home, but I'll stop by the corner store and get some. I should be back in about an hour and a half, after I drop Jenny and Liv off at school."

Giving Beth a quick nod, Lois watched her exit before looking back down at the sleeping infant in her arms. "Henry, I have a story to tell you. Your mom's name is Vicki Vale Powers, and she's an amazing woman who will be a great mom. But there's another woman you come from, a woman named Chloe Sullivan, who's also your mom. She's a part of you, buddy, in your every cell, same as your dad. I'm going to tell you about her, and about how much she would love you."

* * *

><p>"Don't most women get to go home first after giving birth?"<p>

Lois had to concede that Vicki had a point. Never after she'd had a baby had she been taken to somewhere other than her own place of residence, be it the house in Metropolis or the apartment in Smallville. Had that been foisted upon her, she thought she might have been more peeved than Vicki sounded, though admittedly she might have been too wrapped up in her new baby to have gotten very worked up. With Devon she probably would have welcomed Martha driving her to the farm rather than to the apartment, as she might have felt a little less pressure to do it all herself rather than share a little bit of the load like she had the previous two times with Clark. Her stupid pride had gotten the better of her once at the apartment. Being home with two young children and a baby was a situation that merited taking any help that was offered, and she had taken some, but not as much as she could have. Glancing back over her shoulder at the new parents, who were watching Henry as he slept in his car seat, Lois turned her head back around as she rode in the passenger seat while Beth drove them all to her house. She had conspired with others in their group of friends to have Jeff's car moved to her house and Vicki's car back to their apartment so that they'd had no choice but to ride with her. A devious plan, but one she doubted either Jeff or Vicki was too annoyed by. "Think of this as a crash course in how to let go of your baby for a little while," she said as they turned into Beth's subdivision. "Henry nursed just before we left and you're going to be in a house full of people well versed in changing diapers, so you can take a little while to relax before it's just two parents and a baby."

"I just spent more than thirty-six hours in a birthing center with many different people holding my baby while I was awake and asleep. Pretty much the only time I got to hold him without somebody else asking to hold him was when he was eating, and that's only because I'm his food source. All I wanted to do was hold him and much of what I was doing was handing him off, so I learned how to let go of him quickly. While I appreciate the abundance of love being heaped upon Henry, at some point Jeff and I will have to swim in the deep end, and from what I've been told many times there's no way you can ease us into it. Plus, it would be nice to get some alone time with my son."

"All of what you just said is very true," Beth answered. Lois was glad that she had something to say because she was having a difficult time arguing against letting Vicki and Jeff go home and get some time to themselves with Henry. "However, as Jeff knows very well and should have explained to you before Henry was born, this is tradition, something that has happened for every single baby born into our group of friends. I know that a lot of people came by yesterday afternoon and evening to meet Henry, but we started this a long time ago when Will and Reid adopted Bella, though I admit it was a smaller group of friends at that point. However, it established that everybody gets together, fawns over the baby and showers it with love for a couple hours, and then we release said baby and its parents into the world. We then get together again three or four weeks later and the parents hand off the baby for an afternoon while we all commiserate and remind them that having a baby is, in fact, worth the sleep deprivation, raw nipples and giant bags you have to carry around until they're toilet trained."

"This is why I never had a giant group of friends." Frowning, Lois thought about what she had just said. "Actually, this has nothing to do with why I never had a giant group of friends. That's more me being picky about who my friends are and people thinking that I'm prickly when nothing is further from the truth. Still, I think I'm jumping to the other side on this debate, because if anybody had tried to take me anywhere at home after I had a baby I'd have been liable to throw down." Looking back over her shoulder again, she smiled at Vicki. "I've got your back on this one, cuz."

"Yeah, well, you're in our group now, Lois, so don't think you're exempt from this tradition should you find yourself pregnant," Beth said as they turned onto her street, and Lois scoffed.

"First off, never happening. While Clark is unable to get snipped, I was more than able to get tied. My fallopians are officially closed for business. Second, _if_ it could happen, I highly doubt all of you would fly out to Metropolis for your tradition." Unbuckling her seatbelt as Beth pulled the car into the driveway, Lois popped her door open and stepped out, taking a bag from Jeff so he could help Vicki with Henry. "As a late addition to your group of friends," she continued, watching as Vicki got out of the car with Henry's carrier in hand, "and one who has attended few shindigs where the whole group was present, I think I've joined the Jeff, Beth and Sam subgroup more than the group as a whole."

"That is true, Beth," Jeff said, walking behind Vicki as they made their way to the front door. "Some of us might have gone, but I doubt everybody would have. Though since it's a moot point, I think it's best to focus on the welcome to the world party that's actually happening rather than a theoretical one."

Lois nodded, more than happy to focus on what was happening now rather than what wasn't going to happen in the future. "Vicki, is Henry still asleep?" Seeing Vicki nod as she looked back at her, Lois continued. "I think we can use that to our advantage. As I've noticed a time or two that this group of people is prone to cheering good things, I say we send Jeff in first to warn people to keep it down, and then you, Vicki, take him out of his carrier, holding him and telling people that you don't want to jostle him too much while he's sleeping. Thus, peaceful baby stays in your arms. Now, should picking Henry up wake him from his slumber, you can hand off your crying baby to the first unsuspecting sap you come across, say thanks, and then find and reclaim him once he's peaceful again."

"See, it's that type of thinking that reminds me that I made a good decision in deciding to stake my claim on you as a family member. Excellent, excellent plan." Lois watched as Vicki gently placed the carrier on the ground and knelt down, working for a second before she lifted Henry out of his carrier and got the sleeping baby settled against her body. They all waited a second, and when no cries came, Jeff went inside to issue the sleeping baby warning while they all waited. "I don't remember if I said this all ready, but thanks for staying for all this stuff, Lois," Vicki said with a smile as she gently swayed back and forth while Henry slept against her. "I know that travel isn't the big deal for you that it is for most, but still, I'm glad you're here. And speaking of your travel method, I do have a question about it, which I wanted to ask the other day but got sidetracked by that whole going into labor thing. The Super speed... how does the wind shear, G-Forces or anything else involved in crazy fast travel not tear a normal human to shreds? I've always wondered."

"You know what? I've never asked him or his biological father because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't understand the answer anyway." Off the confused look, which Lois figured was because of the reference to Jor-El, Lois decided to clarify. "There's a place in the arctic... I'll explain it later because it could take a while. Suffice to say, what I know is that at Super speed I'm cradled in his arms, I close my eyes for five to ten seconds and then I'm somewhere else, fighting off some dizziness. I assume it's an equilibrium thing, but haven't looked into it."

That was all the farther their conversation on the topic got as Jeff came back outside. "Okay, everybody inside is forewarned that Henry is sleeping so it will be quiet fawnings and showerings of love, but I can't guarantee that lasts long. It's been, what, five years since the last time we did one of these things?"

"Five or six, yeah. Warren turns five in about six weeks," Beth said before she turned to Vicki. "You and the little guy ready to go?"

Vicki smiled as they started inside. "I think we'll both live through the getting loved on for two or three hours."

Lois was the last one inside, closing the front door quietly before following the others into the house, where she could see everybody and their children gathered together to welcome Henry into the group. As much as she had sided with Vicki, Lois couldn't deny that it was a cool thing to see such a big group of friends come together to welcome a new baby into their lives. She still had trouble imagining what it must be like to be a part of such a big group of friends, despite having been included now since they had lived in New York, though not extensively. It was more difficult to feel like she was a part of the group when she lived halfway across the country, but it was nice to know that whenever she came to Gotham she had friends besides Bruce, and with Vicki's change of thinking, family.

It was a couple hours later when Lois found herself plopping down on a bed next to Vicki in the upstairs guest bedroom, who had just started nursing Henry. Flipping off her shoes, she swung her legs up onto the bed and got herself settled in. "I'm going to say to you what was said to me not long after Jacob was born." Vicki nodded, but didn't look away from Henry. "So, you're a mom."

"That's it?" she asked, looking up from Henry to frown at her. "I assumed there was going to be some advice in there somewhere, perhaps with some dry wit involved."

"Trust me, the statement is profound in its simplicity. It took a little while for me to get it, too." Sucking on her lip for a second, Lois crossed her arms over her chest as she stared at the wall across from them. "On an unrelated subject, I have a few questions about the group of people that is currently downstairs."

"Shoot."

"How did the group of friends come together? And who was whose friend before it came together? My final question is, How many subgroups are there, such as the one that consists of you, Jeff, Beth, Chuck, Sam and Kyle?"

Vicki smiled as she quirked an eyebrow. "Not interested in asking a question with a short answer?"

"You've got time," Lois said with a smirk, using her chin to point at the baby who was attached to her breast.

"A fair point." Vicki exhaled slowly as she looked down at Henry before looking back up, staring at the far wall the same as Lois had been doing. Lois joined her in the act, mostly so she didn't get a crick in her neck while keeping her head turned to look at her. "Okay, so when Jeff and I got married I asked him the same questions, and you're lucky that I wrote the information down and worked to memorize it so I would have an idea of how to navigate through clicks, groups and whatever else I came across. You know who is married to whom in the group, right?" Lois nodded. "Then we're all set there. The group came together when Beth moved back to Gotham in 2011, after breaking up with her live-in boyfriend in Boston. She was the straggler who didn't live in or near Gotham, so her return was the catalyst. She started getting together with all her friends again once she was back and she would also include Jeff, as she lived with him the first two months she was back. Jeff was the same way, including Beth in things his group of friends would do. Naturally their respective groups of friends started interacting, and by the time a year had passed since Beth had moved back to Gotham it was basically one big group."

"And it was a seamless transition?" Lois asked, finding it hard to believe that a big group of people that had been two groups of people had come together seamlessly.

"Mostly, yeah. Will and Reid got Bella about six weeks after Beth moved back and not long after that Richie married Lindsay. Will and Reid had been Jeff's friends since high school, so Beth had known them anyway, but once she was back and they had a baby Beth got really close to them and introduced them to her friends. Now, I mentioned Richie and Lindsay's wedding because Richie was Beth's friend, but he also invited Jeff to his wedding. Also invited, unbeknownst to all involved, was Jeff's friend Erin, who Richie worked with. That was the first happening of integration between the groups of friends that didn't involve Jeff or Beth joining one or the other's group of friends. When Art married Pat in 2012 there had been so much cross pollination that everybody was at his wedding and the group became what it is today."

"So it really did go seamlessly," Lois said, frowning. She had a difficult time remembering the last time in her life anything had gone seamlessly, let alone integrating two groups of people into one big group.

"That's what I've been told by Jeff, Beth _and_ Sam, because I had a hard time believing it, too. The first two are trustworthy sources, but sometimes you need independent confirmation from a third source independent the first two."

Lois nodded. "Of course. That's just smart fact checking."

"Indeed. Now, as to who started as whose friend, let's see... Will, Reid, Erin, Art and Garrett were Jeff's circle of friends while Sam, Donovan, Becky, Richie, Dana and Lily were Beth's friends. As far as subgroups within the bigger group..." Vicki paused and Lois glanced at her, finding that she was fidgeting with Henry, attempting to get him moved around as he wiggled while adjusting her shirt and bra and not having the easiest of times with it. "Sorry, give me a second," she muttered. Lois tried her best not to smile as Vicki attempted to figure out what should go where, remembering when she had been in the same boat. It was a minute before she got everything and everyone where she wanted them. "I know you're supposed to switch from one boob to the other but it's easier in theory than it is in practice. The people who write those things must have more hands than I do."

Lois nodded, going back to watching the far wall, not bothering to hide her smile anymore as she could tell Vicki wouldn't notice. "I'm sure that's it."

Vicki took another minute burping Henry and getting him to latch on to her other nipple before beginning again. "Anyway, subgroups. Obviously there's the Jeff, Beth and Sam grouping. Will, Reid and Beth, too. There's one with all the men from the original thirteen, plus Erin, as they have an annual fantasy football league that started in 2013. I think they do a less formal league that encompasses everybody in the group that wants to play, too, but I zoned out when Jeff was talking about it because, well, I barely pay attention to actual sports and wasn't interested in joining in on the game. I do know that many of them go to a Gotham Rogues game every year, usually towards the end of the season, but they went early this year since Henry was due midseason." Lois wasn't surprised at the pause in Vicki's speech, figuring she had taken a moment to check on her son at the mention of his name. "Um... there's Lindsay, Pat, Helen and Karen, who got close because they all married into the group. They like to try and include me in things because I'm the first woman to marry into the group since Karen did, back in 2014. Not sure if all the men who married in have a similar deal going on but I wouldn't be surprised. Dana, Lily and Becky have always been a close knit trio, according to Beth. They were their own subgroup in Beth's group of friends before the big group came together. Beyond those groupings, I think I would end up listing best friends and that seems tedious."

"Agreed. I'm curious, but not so curious as to try and memorize that much information. Just good to know the ins and outs since I am apparently an official member of the group. Plus, since I can now use Clark to come to Gotham and it not seem weird to you, Jeff, Beth or Sam, I'll get to see my nephew much more frequently." Lois smiled at Vicki, who was nodding. "You have no idea how nice it is that you know about Clark, not to mention that the people closest to you also know. Makes life a hundred times simpler when I don't have to lie about him or something involving his gifts."

"I can imagine that would be a nice break from the norm," Vicki said as Henry stopped eating. "Would you mind burping him for me?" she asked. "I've had to pee for the past fifteen minutes but I didn't want to interrupt him."

"I can say with much certainty that you're always welcome to hand your son off to me when you need a bathroom break." Pulling the burping cloth off Vicki's shoulder, Lois got it set on her own before gently taking Henry and getting him settled on her shoulder. "Have you figured out the best way to burp him yet, or is it still a work in progress?"

"Work in progress. I think the patting works better, but he seems to prefer when I do a circular motion with my hand. Must be more soothing. Back in two minutes," she said as she got off the bed and walked out of the room.

"So, you like what feels good but something else works better for you," Lois said quietly as she started patting Henry's back gently. "I get that. Sounds like something you inherited from your mom, although to be honest preferring what feels better to what works best is a pretty universal human thing. I guess that just means you're human like most of the rest of us, albeit a tiny, bald and exceptionally cute version of one. Let me just say that you're lucky you're related to me, because normally I think newborns look ridiculous, unless they're my newborns. You, though, are as close to being my newborn as one can get without actually residing in my uterus for nine months, which means that you can be nothing but cute, adorable and amazing in my book." Glancing at her shoulder, she noticed Henry burp. Taking a second to wipe off his chin and mouth, she got him resettled, this time with his head resting on her chest before she started doing the circles on his back that Vicki thought he liked. She did a quick diaper check and found that he was dry before looking down at him again, finding his eyes drooping. "It's okay," she said softly, "you can go ahead and sleep. I promise that mommy will be back soon to hold you close and keep you safe from the big bad world." She started humming quietly, going with some early 90's Metallica rather than Whitesnake, as Devon was still the only baby Lois had ever found that liked Whitesnake. Poor kid was doomed to be her clone.

"Sorry, that took longer than I thought but I'm here..." Lois smiled as Vicki trailed off, noticing that her son was asleep. "Wow, you did that quickly," she whispered as she approached the bed.

"You learn a few things after having had three of these," Lois said with a slight nod. "You should go grab his carrier, see if you and Jeff can use this opportunity to make a quiet exit. Otherwise I imagine this thing could stretch on longer than the two or three hours that Beth said it would last."

"Yeah, these gatherings do have a tendency to go longer than planned." Vicki turned to leave the room but stopped and turned back around. "You're not going back to Metropolis until tomorrow, right?"

"That's my current plan, yes."

"I have some stuff I want to show you, some reports and other papers that I think you would find interesting. I would have shown you before now, or at least talked to you about it, except you were kidnapped and then I was trying to come to terms with things."

"Is this the thing you wanted to talk to me about but weren't comfortable doing so in your office because of bugs?" Lois asked, her curiosity thoroughly piqued.

"Correct," Vicki said with a nod as she inched towards the door. "I told Clark about it some when he told me that you had been kidnapped but I imagine it fell on deaf ears, which is obviously understandable."

"How about we do this. Since I imagine you don't want me interrupting your baby time this evening, why don't Beth and I follow you and Jeff to your apartment. We'll make sure the three of you get settled and have everything you need, you can give me the papers, or at least copies of them, and then you don't get an interruption this evening or tomorrow morning if you don't want one."

"A very solid plan. I'll go get the carrier and inform Jeff and Beth as to what's going to happen. And please," Vicki said with a smile as she stopped in the doorway, "while I don't have a cousin in my memories, my Chloe dreams have informed me about having you as a cousin. There are three things I learned from those dreams: life is never as simple as it seems, interruptions by Lois Lane are not something to be wary of, but something to look forward to, and family is important. So please, Lois, interrupt at will. I wasn't just saying it when I called you my cousin. That's who you are, and my son can only benefit from having you in his life, so interrupt as much as you like." Vicki seemed to consider her words for a moment. "I would add a caveat to that about if I haven't been sleeping because of Henry, but in that case I would hand him off to you and go to bed, so I stand by my statement. Interrupt as much as you want."

Vicki walked out, leaving Lois to close her eyes and thank whatever gods may exist for whatever she had done to deserve what was happening. Vicki's son sleeping against her body and Vicki telling her to interrupt whenever she wants because her Chloe dreams told her about how much Chloe had loved her and vice versa. "Thanks for still having my back, Chlo," she murmured before looking down to watch Henry sleep.

* * *

><p>Blinking as she woke up, Henry's cries ringing in her ears, Vicki sat up slowly, unwrapping herself from Jeff's arms before taking a second to rub at the corners of her eyes. Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she shook her head as she stood, wobbling a little as she tried to wake herself a little more. She wasn't surprised that Jeff hadn't woken up this time; he needed sleep now as much as she had a few hours earlier, when he insisted that she go get at least three hours of sleep after Henry last ate. She had been so tired she hadn't even been aware of what time it was when she had passed out, sleep overtaking her before she could look at a clock. She had been completely out, not even feeling Jeff crawl into bed with her, only realizing he had when she woke up tangled in his arms rather than just being tangled in sheets. Yawning widely, she padded over to Henry's crib, finding her son wailing as loudly as his little lungs would allow. Reaching in, she scooped him up and pulled him close to her body, bouncing gently as she walked out into the living room of their apartment. Sitting down on the couch, she grabbed the television remote and turned on a twenty-four hour news station, not aware of what time it was aside from the fact that it was dark outside. Pumping up the volume, Vicki made sure that he was dry before getting Henry situated on her breast without much trouble, having become extremely familiar with the process over the past...<p>

Frowning, Vicki had to look up at the television to see what the date was, finding it to be 4:38am Wednesday morning. "So, my beautiful boy," Vicki said quietly as she looked back down at him, "I guess that makes you five days old. Five whole days since you officially came into our lives. I knew you unofficially for longer than that, but that was more of an umbilical relationship, and you weren't nearly as vocal back then." Smiling tiredly as Vicki let her eyes close for a moment, she forced them back open, as she didn't want to take the chance that she would fall asleep while Henry was eating. "I love you so much, Henry. I'm so tired that I can't figure out a better way to say it than that, and I know that I say it pretty much every time I hold you, but it's true, because I'm your mom, and it's not like you can say it too much, right? You're a part of me, and nothing can ever change that." Pausing, Vicki looked up, realization coming over the haziness of her sleep deprived brain. "Jesus," she said quietly, looking down at Henry again. "I'm a _mom_."


	39. Chapter 39

- Chapter 39

Tracing her tongue along the edge of a tooth as she read the papers she had gotten from Vicki, Lois's frown deepened as she flipped to the next page of the research into Intergang in Gotham, and then into the still-theoretical-but-entirely-possible connection to their first house in Metropolis burning down. Vicki had done all the research that Lois had been unable to find the time to do with the necessary thoroughness after the first bombings, the research that had subsequently been pushed to the side and had eventually died out when Clark had returned. She hadn't meant to let it die, and had initially thought that Clark coming home might give her more time to work on it before going back to work when her maternity leave was over, but she had been swept up in his return home, and then they had moved so she could work at the New York _Times_ and it had gotten lost in the rigors of balancing work, three children and a husband who was suffering from undiagnosed post traumatic stress. Vicki hadn't had those impediments to her research, though Lois wished she could think of a better word to describe Clark, their children and her former job. Most of Vicki's work had been done in the months between her house burning down and finding out she was pregnant, when she had decided to curtail the research in favor of having a pregnancy without attempts made on her life, just in case they had tried on a day the Justice League wasn't paying enough attention. It wouldn't have happened, but Lois understood the readjusting of priorities when first finding out you were pregnant. Granted, for her it had taken a couple Superman saves and a gun pointed at her abdomen, but she still understood it. Letting the papers rest in her lap, Lois looked up at Clark, who was turning the car into the parking garage near the _Daily Planet_. Normally she liked to drive in the mornings, but today she had decided to read the research instead. "Damn it, Smallville, Vicki picked up where Chloe left off."

"What do you mean?" he asked as he pulled the car into a parking spot before looking over at her.

"I mean that she's going to make me have to up my game, make me have to work harder and be better!" Getting out of the car, Lois stuffed the file into her computer bag before settling it on her shoulder. "Anytime I thought I had a firm grasp on the 'best journalist in the family' title Chloe would publish something that would move the bar back towards her. Now I've got a secret cousin in Vicki, and no sooner does she claim me as family as she gives me this stuff and picks up the fight Chloe and I were in. She could have at least warned me that she was going to restart things."

"In her defense," Clark said as they stopped at a street crossing, "I doubt that she's aware that she's done anything more than share information for a fresh perspective. I'm not sure how much of Chloe's life she remembers, but if there was any rhyme or reason to what she remembered I doubt that was part of it."

"She remembers at least part of the depth of the relationship I had with Chloe, Smallville, which means that she most certainly remembers the friendly competition we had going during our meteoric rises to the top of the ranks." She would have said more but they were joined by others at the crosswalk, leaving Lois to idly fiddle with her rings until they were cleared to cross the street. Walking inside the building as Clark held the door for her, Lois punched the elevator button as she waited for Clark to rejoin her. They stayed silent on the way up to their floor, and it continued all the way until they were in her office, Clark quietly closing the door behind him as she dropped her purse into her desk drawer. "Trust me, Smallville, she remembers."

"You waited until we were in your office to say _that_?" Clark walked slowly to her desk, pulling off his glasses for a second and messing with his tie before replacing them. "You could have said that in front of others. Nobody could have possibly known what that was in reference to, Lo."

"That is so _not_ the point," she muttered, glancing at her computer for a second before looking back up at him. Exhaling loudly, she reached up and fixed his tie, shaking her head as she did so before using it to pull him down into a searing kiss. Pulling away a moment later, she nodded once before sitting down to get to work.

"I, uh..." Clark cleared his throat, Lois not bothering to look up. "I think I had forgotten how... affectionate... you could get when you were feeling competitive. I also don't remember being so surprised by it, but then I suppose I would have married somebody else had I wanted predictability in my life. And before you get too far into that, we have to go see Perry, remember? He told us last night he wanted to talk to us in his office this morning, remember? Still wish he had told us what it was going to be about so I could have tried to prepare."

"Like Perry would ever let you try to feel prepared for one of his morning meetings." Getting up out of her chair, Lois walked around her desk and was halfway to the door when she stopped and turned back to face Clark. "Am I really more sexually aggressive when I'm feeling competitive?"

Clark blinked before smiling and gently pushing her towards the door. "We've been married nearly ten years and together for over eleven. I'm pretty sure it has been long established that when you feel competitive you tend to use me as an outlet for extra energy you have stored up."

"I'm pretty sure it hasn't, Smallville. That's the sort of thing that a girl remembers, and it sounds like the kind of thing a husband would keep secret and use to his advantage for some extra sex."

She heard Clark scoff as they got to the door of her office, Lois stopping with a hand on the doorknob to turn and face him. He was smirking down at her. "First of all, I have never needed any trick, trigger or reasonable facsimile to get extra sex out of you. Outside of my post-release inattentiveness and disengagement during lovemaking, our sex life has always been nothing but extraordinary and passionate. We are the rare couple that through familiarity, children and craziness never lost the heat. It took me being held captive and tortured to douse the heat in our relationship, and now that I'm in therapy and have resumed Superman duties the heat is quickly returning to normal levels. And second... well, I forget what the second thing was, but I love you, Lo, and am happy to see you feeling competitive like this again for non-sex related reasons." He reached around her body and used her hand to turn the doorknob, smiling at her as he gently guided her towards Perry's office. "And really, that's what you're going to take from the file Vicki gave you? Nothing about Intergang possibly burning down our house?"

"Of course not, Smallville, but I'd like to peruse the information again before drawing any strong conclusions." Lois also wasn't entirely sure that she believed his little speech about being happy to see her competitive for reasons unrelated to sex, though she definitely believed him that they were returning to previous levels of heat in their relationship. It was amazing the difference in him now that he was seeing Sam every week and back to being Superman. She wasn't sure which had done more for his state of mind, but he was as much himself as he had been since returning now, almost the same person he had been before everything had gone sideways. The fact that he could now mention being tortured, let alone without wincing or having to pause, was a testament to how far he had come in such a short time. "I would have gone over it a few more times by now except we've had wild and/or clingy children the past few days, you've been busy with the extracurriculars and I've had to take work home. I was in Gotham for the weekend, but it's only Wednesday and I'm all ready exhausted."

"Hopefully it will be a slow night in the city and I'll be able to stay home and keep the children occupied, maybe let you get to bed early."

"We can only hope," Lois said with a nod before opening the door to Perry's office, walking inside as she spotted him sitting behind his desk, frowning at his computer. Sitting down in one of the chairs, Lois crossed her legs and her arms, waiting for Perry to disengage himself from whatever was causing him to frown, having learned long ago that interruptions were smart when she had breaking news in hand, and less so when Perry had called the meeting. He wanted them to be there on time, but that didn't mean he wasn't all ready in the middle of something. Scrunching her nose as it started to itch, Lois suddenly sneezed, blinking a couple times before taking a handkerchief that Clark was holding out to her. She shot him a small smile before taking it, fairly certain that he was one of twelve men alive that actually carried one. "I always forget how much leaving Metropolis for a few days can end up with my allergies going haywire for a few days when I come back."

"Where'd you go, Lane?" she heard Perry ask, and watched as he turned away from his computer to look at her.

"Gotham. Vicki had her baby Friday so I flew out for a couple days to visit and intrude on her first couple days of motherhood."

Perry grunted, looking down at something on his desk. "Hardly a surprise that you struck up a friendship with Sullivan's doppleganger, strange as it is. Tell her congratulations from me next time you talk to her. She was busy while here, but seemed more than competent." Had she heard anybody else say that, Lois would have thought it was a backhanded compliment. From Perry it was high praise. "Anyway, let's get to the point of why you two are here. You, Lane, are the best managing editor I've had in a long time, and you, Kent, are as likely to be somewhere looking for your wallet as you are in the office at any given time. Both of you worked over Wayne to get four day work weeks, and while I dislike that, it is what it is and I have to work around it. Therefore, here's what's going to happen: Lane, you're staying as my managing editor Monday thru Thursday." He held up a hand, cutting off the protest she was going to voice before she could even start it. "I don't care that you'll be able to publish again next week, because you'll be doing investigations, too, like you have been this whole time when you wanted to write for the _Daily Planet_ but couldn't: through _Weekly._ I might occasionally assign you something here should I get any home run tips, but for the most part if you write for the _Daily Planet_ it will be columns in reaction to breaking news and things regarding Superman. You can knock those out without breaking a sweat." Lois was glaring, knowing how much Perry hated to be interrupted this far into what he was saying, but it didn't seem to deter him. "Think of it this way, Lane. You can work investigations for two publications and always take home work with you, or you can work investigations for one publication and have more time to spend with your children.

"Now, Kent, you work into this in the following way. I'm going to change your day off to Monday, so that you'll work Tuesday thru Friday. When you're here on Fridays you'll be my managing editor because I'm tired of doing it once a week. Why you? Because Lane trained you to be one of my best journalists, and despite your farm boy goofiness and preternatural clumsiness, when you've run City you have done it well. You were smart, decisive, and while likely to disappear at any given moment, a good section editor. While I dislike the idea of a managing editor who is as likely to be in the office as not, it'll still be better than just doing it myself when I could be doing my own work. I have enough to do around here without listening to section editors bitch and moan all day once a week." Perry shot each of them a look. "Any questions?"

"Just a small one," Lois said, matching Perry's look with one of her own. "That whole thing about you hiring a new managing editor so that I could go back to being an investigative journalist... was it a load of crap, or is that just a happy accident?"

"Happy accident. Like I said, you're really good at it, which makes my life less stressful. I like that."

Getting out of the chair, Lois shook her head. "This is bullshit, Perry. If I had known I was going to be moving here to be an editor instead of a journalist I would have stayed at the _Times_!"

Perry started chuckling, standing up as well. "Now I know I made the right move. Do you remember what you said to me when I assigned Kent to be your partner, Lois?" She shrugged, not remembering much about it all that clearly and not entirely sure what it had to do with what was going on now. "You told me it was bullshit when I explained why I was assigning Clark to you. Since that worked out so well, I'm counting it as a good omen in regards to this adjustment I'm making to your career. And take it from a workaholic, Lois: if you can still do the work you love and get more time with your children, that's never bullshit."

* * *

><p>Landing on the balcony connected to the master bedroom, Clark slipped inside quietly only to find Lois sitting up in bed reading, still awake, having expected to find her asleep after their having thrown Jacob a birthday party that afternoon. He had been able to be there for most of it, having to leave to help only once, which he counted as a blessing. The evening hadn't been so kind, Superman having been required in multiple places for most of it, though he had at least gotten to be home when they had celebrated his birthday as a family, seeing him blow out the candles on his cake before being called away. "Hey," he said quietly, doing a quick change of clothes so that he was in his pajamas when getting into bed next to her. "It's after midnight. I thought you would have fallen into bed and passed out not long after the kids went down for the night. Even I find birthday parties to be exhausting, especially when we're the ones hosting one."<p>

"That was definitely Plan A, but Devon woke up crying about an hour ago and decided to take her time going back to sleep. I had to lay down with her for the better part of half an hour before she conked." Lois flipped her book shut after having placed a makeshift bookmark inside of it, setting it on her nightstand. "Once that happened, I figured I may as well wait a little while and see if you got home at a reasonable hour. I still like to see you come home whenever I can. It's more of a peace of mind thing for me than it used to be."

"I'd noticed that," Clark said quietly, slipping his legs under the sheets rather than sitting on top of them. "It's strange that there's a new normal in regards to going back to the old normal." Watching Lois lay down, Clark did the same, gently pulling her back slowly until their bodies were pressed together, the front of his head resting gently against the back of hers.

"There's a new normal, but then you come home and we're close like this, and I'm reminded that I never feel more peaceful than these few moments when it's just the two of us, laying in bed together as we fall asleep. A simple, easy kind of intimacy that too many people take for granted."

"The easiest intimacies can also be the easiest things to forget," he murmured, closing his eyes. "The few moments we get to ourselves when there isn't an immediate worry or deadline. Usually we're so tired that we forget to take advantage, doing something crazy like sleeping instead."

"Obviously we're not very smart," Lois said quietly. She turned around to face him, smiling tiredly after covering a long yawn with the back of her hand. "Can you believe our son is _seven,_ Smallville?"

"I cannot, though I think I would have emphasized that our _son_ is seven. You can't believe he's seven, and seven years later I'm still kind of in disbelief that we have a son."

Lois smirked. "I was under the assumption that you had gotten used to the idea by the time he turned one. If you're still having trouble believing we have a son, you must still be in shock that we also have two daughters."

"That is not an entirely false statement, Lo," Clark said as he smiled. "But then again, there's still a level of disbelief that I have a wife, and that you in particular are my wife. I have very vivid memories of having to sleep on the couch for extended periods of time back when you were blonde and much less in the know about how I lived my life."

"Yeah, and I have some pretty vivid memories from when you wore plaid on a daily basis and wanted nothing more than to stay in Smallville for the rest of your life, while at the same time being very annoying about having to give up your bed to a guest."

"A guest implies that you spent more time away than you did there." Using his speed to his advantage, as he liked to do in situations like this, Clark had Lois on top of his and encircled in his arms, leaving her to blink and reorient herself as he continued. "As I recall, the stretches of time you were in my bed were occasionally broken up by short periods of time where you attempted to strike out on your own, only to run into one problem or another that ended with you moving back to the farm."

"First off, you're a big cheater," she said, raising an eyebrow. "Second, just because I have a natural talent for finding trouble does not mean that there was any failure on my part when it came to striking out on my own after spending time at the farm, and it's not like I didn't eventually move into the Talon apartment." Clark raised an eyebrow back at her as she slowly started grinding her pelvis against his. "Please, don't act shocked" she said. "You only have so many moves, and when you super speed me on top you're looking for some goodnight lovin. You're just lucky that I sleep better after an orgasm."

Clark couldn't help but grin and she kept grinding slowly. "The moves may be familiar, but I stick with what works."

* * *

><p>"You all ready put the diaper bag in the car, right?" Vicki asked, setting Henry's carrier down on the table before catching a bottle of water Jeff tossed to her. Cranking it open, she took a long swig as he answered.<p>

"It is loaded and ready to go, yes, and I took your purse down with it. All that's left to be loaded in the car is the two of us and Henry, and I feel we would be hard pressed to forget any of those things."

Swallowing and wiping off her mouth with the back of her hand before lifting Henry's carrier, her son sleeping peacefully in it in what was turning out to be a very well timed nap, Vicki walked out of the apartment as Jeff held the door open for her, walking to their car and opening the back door, taking a moment to get Henry's seat latched in properly. She did a double check on all the latches as had become habit in the five weeks since Henry's birth. She could scarcely believe that it had all ready been a month since he had been born, because it seemed like it had been a week, if not just a few days. She guessed it was understandable that the five weeks had been a blur, as she had been totally focused on Henry for much of it while at the same time being about as tired as she could remember ever being. She made it through most days by telling herself that it was a good tired, that it was a more rewarding tired than having worked long hours, though often her body didn't seem to register the difference between 'rewarding tired' and 'really, really, really tired and in desperate need of sleep.' It was at least starting to adjust to her schedule rather than protest extensively, though it hadn't stopped protesting. Now it was just protesting her lack of sleep a little less, instead deciding just to be thankful that she got any sleep at all. It had apparently figured out that beggars couldn't be choosers when it came to rest.

Once satisfied that Henry's car seat was firmly in place, Vicki got into the front seat, getting her seatbelt buckled as Jeff pulled the car out and they started towards Beth's house. Vicki was glad to be getting out of the apartment, as much work as it had been to make herself look presentable. After they had begged out of Jenny's birthday party with friends yesterday, where numerous children and conversations had awaited them, she was more than happy to go to Jenny's smaller, more family centric birthday party today, and was helped by the fact that it was actually her birthday. "Jenny's present is in the trunk, right?" she asked, looking over at Jeff as he drove, and he nodded.

"I wrapped it the day we bought it and put it in there so that there was no way we could forget it through an act of general or sleepy haze forgetfulness." He glanced over at her with a quick smile before looking back at the road. "What do you think the odds are we can hand Henry to Beth and then steal away to the basement to catch a nap or twelve?"

"On a normal Sunday I would say the odds are pretty good we could pull that off. On a Sunday when it's our niece's birthday, I'm going to say the odds are less good."

"Less good?" Jeff asked, and Vicki could only shake her head.

"You know what I meant. Anyway, today is a day where we go to Beth's, hand her our son so she can hold, kiss and change him for a few hours and then focus on Jenny rather than focus on trying to not fall asleep." Considering her words for a second, Vicki decided to amend her statement. "I guess, technically, those foci are not mutually exclusive. At some point I'll probably be focused on not falling asleep while focusing on Jenny."

"If you're that tired, Vicki, then go ahead and take a nap after we get there. Beth will be more than happy to explain to Jenny why you're sleeping, and if she's too occupied with Henry to do so then _I_ will be more than happy to explain to her that parents need to sleep, and that it can be difficult to get that sleep at home."

Vicki smiled at him before looking into the backseat to check and make sure that Henry was still sleeping peacefully, which he was. Even had he been awake, car rides had been one of the more consistent things that they had found lulled him to sleep in a timely fashion. "I'm not that tired right now, but I can't promise that I won't be yawning fairly frequently in a few hours. I know that you got up with him when he started crying early this morning, but it took me awhile to get back to sleep after you did. I wasn't quite asleep when you crawled back into bed, though I can't complain about sleepily feeling you wrap your arms around me. Strange as it seems, I think I now fall asleep faster and sleep better with your body touching mine. That you've made me physically dependent on you for good sleep is not something I was aware could happen."

"Neither was I, though now that you mention it I think that I'm the same way." They rode in silence for a moment, Vicki watching traffic until Jeff spoke again. "Now, if you were to ever fall asleep during sex and blame it on the fact that we were touching, I think we would have to reevaluate how we sleep."

"Should that ever happen, I would be more than happy to," Vicki said with a smile. "Though I think we should work under the assumption that such a thing will never and can never happen. At least that's the assumption I work under. Since you brought it up, I hope that you can say the same."

"Oh, definitely. I only brought it up because it was an odd worst case scenario of how that could work against us that popped into my head. Never before would I have considered that you, or I, could fall asleep during sex." Looking out the window as the exited the highway, Vicki watched as they turned and then soon passed the birthing center where Henry had been born. "With as often as we drive by the birthing center, you would think that I would, at some point, focus on the hours of pain I went through there. Turns out, all I ever think about is that it's the place where Henry was born, where we got to meet our son."

"Natural human tendency to focus on the good, because while labor lived up to its name, that is a place that will always hold the amazing memory of Henry being born. Still can't believe I caught him." Jeff shook his head for a second before they turned onto Beth's street. "And I know it's been weeks, but I still think that you should have known that you OBGYN was a secret hippie."

"Well how was I supposed to know?" Vicki asked, rolling her eyes as they pulled up to Beth's house. "The key word in that sentence is 'secret', as in she wasn't publicizing that information. And to be fair, I'm as much a secret hippie as she is. Yes, she apparently only practices coached pushing if she feels that the mom isn't progressing very well following her natural urge to push, and yes, she encouraged you to catch Henry as he was being born, but to be fair I was the one who chose to give birth in a tub and gave you the go ahead on being the one to catch him as he was born. So really, since I didn't know that I was one, recognizing that my OBGYN was a secret hippie was something that was probably never going to happen."

Jeff turned the car off and shrugged after undoing his seatbelt. "I guess that disproves the phrase 'Takes one to know one' once and for all. You want to get Henry and I get the stuff, or vice versa?"

"I'll take Henry. I have a feeling that Jenny is going to be looking for your attention as soon as we're inside so it's probably best you be readily available to give it to her." Getting out of the car, Vicki got Henry's carrier detached and out of the car, taking the diaper bag and her purse from Jeff and slinging them over a shoulder so that all he had to take was Jenny's gift, which was large in it's own right. She had expressed an interest in playing golf a few times when Jeff and Chuck had played a few rounds after the weather had cooled in September, and after taking her with them once and letting her putt, she had ended up saying that she wanted to play real golf like them. As a result, and after conferring with Beth and Chuck, they had gotten her a set of junior clubs for her birthday. Jeff had included a handmade "gift certificate" in the card Vicki had picked out that entitled Jenny to at least four trips to a nearby indoor driving range during the winter to try out her new golf clubs. He had felt that needed to be included because giving a nine-year-old something that she would otherwise be unable to use until spring seemed mean, and Vicki had agreed as the reasoning made perfect sense.

As they got to the front door, Jeff knocked a couple times before opening the front door, finding nobody nearby but some voices coming from the main living room. They walked through the house until they found Jenny and Liv perched on a couch with Chuck's parents, Mark and Susan, whom Vicki had met the previous year at Jenny's birthday party, having seen them once more after that when Liv had turned six the previous January. Jeff put Jenny's present down and went to greet the birthday girl and his sister's in-laws, leaving Vicki looking around the room, surprised that Henry hadn't been scooped up by Beth yet. Looking around, she saw Beth and Chuck in the dining room, talking quietly, so she decided to leave them to it. Walking over to the coffee table near where everybody else was, she gently put Henry and his carrier down before dropping the diaper bag and her purse onto the ground next to it. She smiled at Chuck's parents, saying, "It's good to see you guys again. How have you been?"

"We've been good," Susan said, looking at her for a second before her eyes traveled down to Henry, "but I think Chuck forgot to inform us that he has a brand new nephew. Congratulations!"

"Thank you," Vicki said, smiling as she turned Henry's carrier slowly so that Mark and Susan could get a good look at him. "His name is Henry, and he was born on October 10th. He decided to be one of those weird babies that is born on its due date, which I think makes me love him just a little bit more, if that's even possible."

"He's an absolute cutie," Susan said with a smile as she watched Henry sleep. Vicki would get caught up doing the same thing, whether he was asleep in his crib or in her arms. Watching Henry sleep, when she wasn't trying to catch some sleep, too, had become a hobby for her. It was amazing how peaceful he could be when asleep, and how much of a stark contrast it was to the way he could be anything _but_ peaceful when awake and perturbed. Her thoughts about his peacefulness were interrupted as she noticed him start to open his eyes and move around, spurring her into action. Kneeling down, she unhooked the safety belts holding him in and gently lifted him out, smiling as he opened his eyes and looked up at her.

"Well hi there," she said in a voice that was an octave higher than how she normally spoke, a voice she couldn't help speaking in whenever she spoke to Henry. "You didn't sleep for nearly as long as I expected. You must have heard your cousins and decided that you wanted to get in on the fun." Unbuttoning his jumper, she did a quick diaper check, finding that he was still clean, and based on the fact that he wasn't crying she didn't think he was hungry yet. Lifting him up and settling him against her shoulder, she stood up and smiled at Susan, who had stood up with her and was getting a little bit of a closer look at him. "Would you like to hold him?" Vicki asked, knowing that now would be a good time for Henry to get passed around. It was likely that he wasn't going to be so peaceful and personable later, though if they caught a break he would eat, she could change him and he was fall asleep for two or three hours.

"I would love to. It's been a few years since any of my grandchildren were as small as Henry is. I'll go wash my hands and be right back." After a couple minutes of talking quietly to Henry, Susan came back, and with what was now practiced ease Vicki moved Henry from her shoulder to Susan's, who started talking quietly to him. As she turned away and started walking slowly back to the couch, Vicki could help but smile as Henry's wide eyes met hers. As far as she could tell he liked new people, but whenever somebody new was holding him and he was hearing a new voice or smelling a new person smell his eyes would go wide like he was trying to figure out what exactly was happening.

Feeling a hand on the back of her shoulder, Vicki turned her head and saw that Beth had come up next to her. "Can we talk?" she asked, and Vicki nodded.

"Yeah, of course." Looking back to Susan, Vicki said, "If he starts getting fussy try drawing little circles on his back. That's been something that calmed him down and helped get him to sleep since the day he was born. You can come find me if he needs to be changed or anything like that."

"I think I can still take care of a dirty diaper should the need arise. Take a little time to relax this afternoon."

"Thank you," she said with a quick smile before following Beth out of the room. Familiar with the route Beth was taking, Vicki wasn't surprised when she saw Beth open the door to the basement, walking down behind her. Once down, Beth stopped short of the couch, turning around and looking down at the floor for a second. "What's up?" Vicki asked, crossing her arms as she wondered what topic warranted the one-on-one talk.

Looking up, Beth frowned. "I have a bone to pick with you."

"Wow, the giving birth to your nephew goodwill didn't last nearly as long as the marrying your brother goodwill did," Vicki muttered. "Whatever I did, I'm sorry and I blame it on sleep deprivation. I'm pretty sure I'm only aware of about half my actions these days."

"I'm not really pissed or angry, just... I'm looking for somebody to blame and while I could easily blame myself and could just as easily blame Chuck, I'm blaming you because you are the one that infected me."

"Infected you? I haven't been sick... have I?" Looking down, she thought back over the past five weeks. "I mean, I don't think I've been sick. At this point I'm not sure I would have noticed if I was out of sorts for a few days. I doubt it would make me much more tired than I all ready am, though I don't particularly want to test that theory."

"No, no." Beth stepped a little closer, glancing up at the stairs behind Vicki for a second before continuing. "You didn't get me sick, you got me pregnant!"

"What?" It took a second for what Beth had said to sink in, but when it did, it hit Vicki like a ton of bricks. "Oh. _Oh_." Eyes going wide, Vicki tried not to grimace. "Based on the fact that I'm being told I got you pregnant, and also the fact that my baby is in no way reasonable, I'm assuming there was a snafu in the birth control department."

Beth nodded, pulling a hand back through hair that had fallen into her eyes. "This was really not supposed to happen. You remember a couple months ago, when Chuck was limping for a few days because he said he'd pulled his groin? Well that was him not wanting to spread around that he'd gotten a vasectomy. Thus, no more children. But apparently Chuck forget the part about still wearing a condom for a few months afterwards because of the possibility of leftover swimmers. We didn't use condoms and I am now five weeks pregnant."

"Five weeks? So, basically, I gave birth, you and Chuck decided to celebrate life, shall we say, and as a result you're now going to have a third child." Shrugging, Vicki uncrossed her arms and shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans. "Yeah, I guess you could say that I got you pregnant, though I think I should at least share credit with Chuck since I was more of a passive participant than he was. I take it this was the topic you two were speaking about in hushed tones when Jeff and I got here?"

"This has been pretty much the only topic we've talked about since I took the pregnancy test on Tuesday and then got confirmation from my doctor on Friday." Beth walked over to the couch and sat down, Vicki following her and doing the same. "We were trying to decide if we should tell the girls yet, as he would like to tear the band-aid off, so to speak, and tell his parents while they're here. I'd like to tell them in spite of not wanting to tell the girls yet, because I knew I was going to tell you and Jeff right away and so I should afford Chuck the same opportunity to tell people. However, I'd rather not tell everyone _but_ Jenny and Liv that they will, in fact, be getting a sibling. It doesn't seem fair to them to be the last ones to know." Beth sighed, shaking her head slowly. "That said, I _am_ only five weeks along and in the past we wouldn't tell very many people until I was out of my first trimester and miscarriage odds dropped. I've never had a miscarriage, and I'm not normally superstitious, but I did things a certain way when I was pregnant with the girls and I had two healthy babies. That I'm telling you anything is a huge break with tradition for me."

"You make points that are difficult to argue against," Vicki said quietly, "and I'm hardly one to say that you should broadcast your pregnancy early and often. We waited fourteen weeks to tell people mostly because of me. Once I hit twelve weeks Jeff was ready to race over and break the news, but I wanted to wait a little longer, make sure nothing went sideways in case the conception date was poorly estimated. Obviously we didn't get the chance to tell you face to face so much as face to group, but we waited until I was comfortable. That's really all you can do, wait until you're comfortable."

"That, or wait until the girls notice that mommy is sick for weeks on end. No morning sickness yet, but I don't expect that to last. If I'm not nauseated by the smell of foods I love by this time next week, I'll be shocked." Beth groaned, rubbing at her eyes. "I all ready miss coffee. Early pregnancy weariness added to quitting coffee cold turkey equals an exhausted, frustrated and snippy Beth."

"If it helps, I hadn't noticed any snippiness or frustration. Admittedly, I'm pretty wrapped up in Henry and my own exhaustion, but still, I think that should count." Beth nodded, and Vicki smiled at her. "I bet after the shock wears off, you'll be happy."

"In shock is about right. I've felt done having children ever since Liv was born, but done is a relative term when your husband forgets little details about how to not get his wife pregnant after getting a vasectomy." Beth went quiet for a moment and Vicki looked over at her, finding her frowning as she let her head rest back against the couch. "We discussed terminating the pregnancy for about a second, but the idea didn't sit right with either of us, so here I am. Or, more accurately, here were are." Beth's hands came to rest low on her stomach. "It'll be an adjustment, but yeah, there will be some happiness. To be honest, I wouldn't mind having a son. A little boy that turns out to be just like Chuck? When we were trying for the girls I imagined what that would be like, and always liked the idea."

"I think we could hope for worse things than sons who turn out like their fathers," Vicki said quietly as she thought about Henry one day growing up to be like Jeff. "Though I think if we hope for them to be just a little better than their parents, that will suffice."

"I wasn't aware you could improve upon perfection."

Vicki quirked an eyebrow as she looked over at her sister-in-law, who was grinning. "Pretty sure somebody perfect would have known to make her husband keep wearing condoms in the months after his vasectomy," she said, shaking her head. "I knew that and my husband hasn't had anything cut." Pushing herself up off the couch, Vicki held out a hand to help Beth up. "Let's go back upstairs. Whatever you choose to do about telling people, all I know is that if we stay down here much longer all this peace and quiet is going to lull me to sleep, and I feel I should at least converse with the birthday girl a little bit before that happens."


	40. Chapter 40

- Chapter 40

Walking out of the master bedroom, Vicki had to stop for a second before turning to continue towards the stairs. Her brain had been elsewhere for a moment and as she had walked out of the bedroom and had forgotten that they now resided in the house they'd had built, all their things having been moved in earlier that week. While inconvenient to have moved into a new house the weekend before Thanksgiving, she was still on maternity leave so Jeff had taken an extra couple days of vacation to have the whole week off, and as a result they had Henry's room mostly unpacked. That had been the extent of their unpacking focus, which meant that she was still digging through boxes to find occasional articles of clothing and other things that were not normally kept in boxes. It was amazing how out of practice she felt when it came to moving, and how much stuff they seemed to have acquired in the fifteen months since all their old stuff had been incinerated. The volume of baby stuff they were in possession of was absurd, but she had known that going into the move. What had shocked her was how much stuff _she_ had acquired. It was like her one time motto of 'Always be ready to move somewhere new' had been forgotten right about the time she had fallen in love with Jeff. It made sense, since only a few months into their relationship she had known she wasn't going to move away for a new job while still with him, but even then it was still good advice and a handy way to live. Now she not only had a more extensive collection of work clothes, but she had more weekend and recreation clothing, more workout clothing _and_ her maternity attire! The amount of clothing she owned had probably tripled in the two plus years since she had moved to Gotham, and essentially none of it was stuff she had owned when she had met Jeff. She was just going to have to blame him for this.

One hand on the railing, Vicki walked down the stairs before turning towards the kitchen, hearing Jeff's voice coming from that direction. Smiling as she found him leaning against a counter and holding Henry, she walked up to them and kissed each of her boys on the cheek. "Hello again, and hello again," she said before moving to lean back against the island that sat in the middle of the kitchen. "Weren't you two watching football? I thought you had decided that Henry was now old enough to understand the intricacies of the sport."

"It's halftime of the only game on that's worth watching so I decided to also educate our son on proper halftime snacking, though since he's on a liquid diet I'm not sure he'll grasp what makes a good salsa. Speaking of good, how was your shower?" Jeff asked, eyeing her for a second before looking back to Henry. "It seems to have brightened your mood."

"Yes, it did," she responded, "though I am now reminded of a question I wanted to ask you. I actually spent some of my shower and most of my time drying my hair debating whether to ask it or not because I think it's going to make me seem kind of silly."

"I think you just made the case _for_ asking the question, not against it."

"Very funny," Vicki muttered with an accompanying eye roll before continuing. "Okay, so, as I feel like I've lost enough baby weight to say that I'm getting my figure back, my potentially silly question is... do I have a new ass?"

"Do you... _what_?" Jeff said, eyebrows climbing up his forehead as he did so. "That's a question that can be asked?"

"I'm serious!" Vicki said, turning around so he could get a good look. As she was in jeans, it occurred to her that it might not have been the best time to ask Jeff this; she would have to make him check again that night when they were going to bed and she was in less forgiving clothing. "Everything on my body is still bigger, so that's not what I'm asking. There's this droop, right at the bottom of each cheek, that I see lots of women get as they age, especially after having children. I know it's shallow and dumb, but I don't want that droop. I want to keep my old ass as much as is possible after growing and popping out a baby, even if it's a bigger version of my old ass."

"I can't believe this is an actual conversation," she heard Jeff say quietly, but she only turned her head to look back at him over her shoulder.

"Hey, I am well aware that nobody fights aging and wins, but I liked my pre-pregnancy body and intend to get it back as much as I can, ass included. I've been working hard on the spinning bike and doing lunges, squats and stretches to get my lower body back to a toned state, but getting a solid look at what's behind me is difficult. Therefore, since I tried the mirror but couldn't tell, I need you to tell me if I have a new ass."

"Vicki, I can say with one hundred percent certainty that your ass is entirely your own and that there is no droop anywhere."

"And you're not just saying that to get off this admittedly ridiculous topic?" she asked as she turned back around to face him.

"I am not. If you would like, I could position mirrors so you have acceptable firsthand visual evidence of just how awesome your ass is. And for the record, it will never, ever be anything less than awesome." Walking over and taking Henry out of Jeff's arms and into hers, she nodded at her husband before smiling at her son.

"A very good answer, if not somewhat political."

"Guess that means I should be careful, since I know how hard you tend to go on politicians," Jeff quipped. "By the way, Beth called and said she would be over soon. She's bringing us leftovers from yesterday to add to the ones that we brought home with us last night. Apparently one can never have too much leftover turkey, stuffing and pie. I agree about the turkey and pie, but not so much about the stuffing. It's a wholly unnecessary thing to serve. The point of Thanksgiving is to stuff yourself on turkey, not something named after the stuff inside of stuffed animals."

Glancing up at Jeff, Vicki shook her head before looking back down at Henry. "I'm so sorry, buddy. Based on your dad and I, it's not far fetched to say that you probably inherited genes that predispose you to rant about things you find ridiculous." He grunted and wiggled a little bit, smiling his little smile at her, causing her to smile back and give him a little Eskimo kiss with her nose. The first time that Henry had smiled, Vicki had nearly bawled, she had found it so beautiful. Now whenever he smiled she liked to do it right back at him. "It's probably good that you find the idea of ranting something to smile about, because before you know it you'll be just like your parents, ranting about stuff like a crazy person!"

"I know you're calling me a crazy person," Jeff said, "but you know that you agree with me that stuffing is a waste of precious stomach space on a day when we stuff ourselves full of so many tasty, tasty things." As he finished the doorbell rang, Vicki smiling as Henry looked away from her at the sound.

"I agree _in theory_, but to be fair Chuck makes really good stuffing." Following Jeff as he walked out of the kitchen, Vicki continued as they approached the front door. "Stuffing, in my experience, is either really good or not good at all, and therefore whether it is a waste of stomach space or not depends on the stuffing itself. Chuck's stuffing? Not a waste of space." Pausing as Jeff opened the front door, Vicki smiled as Beth walked inside, box of food in hand. "And I bet your sister agrees with me."

"Yeah, because _that's_ fair. She loves stuffing, she loves Chuck, and to top it off she loves Chuck's stuffing, which means that she is not on my side and therefore an invalid candidate for this discussion."

"If I didn't love Chuck's stuffing so much I probably wouldn't have ended up pregnant."

"Oh, come on," Jeff moaned as they made their way back to the kitchen, Beth smiling and making faces at Henry as they did so. "That joke was WAY too easy, and I did not need you using stuffing as a double entendre."

"You said I love stuffing, Chuck and Chuck's stuffing! The joke was literally hanging there, waiting for somebody to use it. Don't be mad just because I beat you to the obvious yet funny joke." As she put the box of food down on the kitchen island, Vicki noticed Beth swallow an blink a few times, her face going pale. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go throw up, which on a related note is a result of Chuck's stuffing and of Chuck's stuffing. This way, right?" she asked, pointing back towards another part of the house, Vicki nodding as she watched Beth turned and walk quickly in the direction she had pointed.

"Now you're milking it!" Jeff called after her, shaking his head. "Just irresponsible to make use of that joke more than once. And in front of our son, no less!"

Vicki rolled her eyes, idly running her fingers gently across Henry's back. "He's seven weeks old. It's not like he understands that sexual innuendo of the joke is inappropriate for his ears."

Jeff looked back at her as he started pulling food out of the box. "Sexual innuendo? Who cares about that? It's the lazy and obvious nature of the joke that I find offensive. I plan to raise my son in an environment of smart sarcasm and quick wit, not lazy sarcasm and easy wit. What kind of parents would we be if we allowed that sort of nonsense to be spewed out of Henry's mouth when he comes of a proper age to be sarcastic and witty."

"Assuming that he actually is both of those things."

He scoffed, Vicki shaking her head before going back to smiling at Henry as he smiled at her. "You and I are his parents. If that wasn't enough, we come from sarcastic and witty families. If he's neither sarcastic nor witty then genetics will forever be a mystery to me."

"Because you're so well versed in genetics currently," she mumbled, hoisting Henry up a little higher. "Daddy's just being grumpy because he doesn't like it when Aunt Beth talks about having sex. Should you end up having a sister at some point, I'm afraid you might end up the same way about it."

"Yes, he will, because no man in his right mind wants to imagine his sister in sexual situations. And are you really going to make me have to explain this again? I swear we've gone over it, like, three times." Vicki nodded, not really needing to go over it again so much as she was entertained by Jeff's explanation. "Fine. I know that I'm generalizing when I say this, but men like to think about sex. Mental pictures, good memories and the occasional fantasy. It's fun, and breaks up the monotony of the day. When Beth talks about having sex she and Chuck intrude on my happy sexual thoughts. I do _not_ want my sister, or Chuck, for that matter, in my head in any sexual fashion. It is the opposite of sexy to think about them doing anything sexy and ruins all my happy thoughts."

"That's what I don't understand," Vicki said as she shook her head, looking back up at him as Henry rested his head against her. "She has two daughters and a baby that's gestating. Do you like to pretend that they come from immaculate conception? They, like us all, are the product of sex. You can't pretend otherwise."

"Of course I don't pretend otherwise. I'm not some crazy person who's offended by the idea of sex. I like sex, a lot, and especially sex with you. Beth has been married for..." Jeff paused and frowned before shrugging. "Well, it's been however long it has been. Should probably know that but I've barely slept in seven weeks. Anyway, she's been married, she was engaged, and even back in college she was living with a guy. I never had my head buried in the sand and pretended she was saving herself for marriage, but just because I am cognizant that my sister is a sexual being does not mean I want to _think_ about my sister being a sexual being." Jeff suddenly threw up a hand. "Eleven years! They've been married eleven years."

"Sounds like you're talking about me," Vicki heard, looking back to see Beth slowly walking towards them. She watched as Jeff pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge and handed it to his sister. She smiled and cracked it open, taking a swig and spitting it out in the sink. "Sorry, but I'm not feeling all that classy right now."

"Because we always expect you to be the model of class," Jeff said, but his words were offset by the comforting hand he had on Beth's shoulder.

"I don't know how often you've thrown up in front of Jeff," Vicki added, "but I got well acquainted with the practice less than a year ago, so you spitting out some water is no big deal around here after what he watched come out of me. And considering Jeff lived with a minimally classy and extremely gassy pregnant woman for most of the last year, you're fine."

Beth chuckled before groaning. "Yeah, there is that to look forward to, isn't there? Funny how after just watching you be pregnant, I'm still a little surprised by this thing or that. Turns out while I remember the big things about being pregnant, the little things that my body likes to do had escaped me. I wonder if that counts as one of the little things my body likes to do, too," Beth said quietly before she downed some of her water. "Anyway, enough about me and my embryo. I didn't take any time to ask what you guys had planned for the day when I called Jeff to tell him I was bringing more leftovers."

"Aside from Jeff beginning Henry's football indoctrination? Sorry, education," Vicki said with a smirk shot at her husband, "it was going to be a pretty typical lazy day after Thanksgiving."

"Hey, at least be accurate. Today's football is only one style that I'm going to educate him on. American football, Association football, Aussie Rules football... really, the only football I'm not going to bother with is Canadian football, which is basically American football played with goofy rules and field dimensions."

Vicki wanted to comment on the silliness of Jeff educating their seven week old son on the various types of football, but before she could do so her phone started ringing. Using her free hand to pull it out of her back pocket, she found that it was Lois calling her and put the phone to her ear. "Hey, Lois. What's up?"

"It's a slow day at the farm, which is why I'm calling you. I wanted to ask if you had some free time today for Clark and I to stop by so you and I could discuss your Intergang research. I'd love to take some time to dig into it with you."

"Actually that would be great," she said as she smiled at Beth, who was gently removing Henry from her hold of him. "I just told Beth that I didn't think we had any plans for the day beyond Jeff and Henry doing some father and son bonding while watching football. Surprisingly there are no big group plans, as I had come to expect something with everybody getting together around every holiday. I guess enough people are out of town this year that we aren't all getting together until closer to Christmas."

"That is a surprise. Any particular time you'd like us to come over?"

"No, I think you can just come by whenever. Given your special travel methods, you could come by now if you wanted to. Like I said, we don't have anything going on and it would be nice to have some people in this big honkin' house we now live in." Walking out of the kitchen, Vicki found herself in the main entryway of the house, looking up at the hanging lights and vaulted ceiling of the entryway. "Seriously, after living in a smallish apartment for just over a year, this place seems even more massive than I thought it would seem when we were working with the designer. I think we're going to have to have the group start coming here instead of Beth's house just to make the place feel occupied. There's no telling how many people it would take to make it feel full."

"There's a sexual innuendo joke in that statement that I'm not even going to touch."

Vicki rolled her eyes but smiled, turning back towards the kitchen. "You and Jeff are going to get along even better than usual today. He got annoyed with Beth a little while ago for making an easy sexual innuendo joke about stuffing. Anyway, yeah, if you're free now, come on over. The coast is clear of anybody who would wonder why you two were in Gotham."

"Excellent. We'll be there in five, though if Devon decides to be clingy it could be closer to ten. Either way, see you in a few."

"Bye," Vicki said, hanging up her phone and stuffing it back in her back pocket as she walked back to the kitchen, where she found Jeff and Beth sitting at the table they had put in the breakfast area of the kitchen, a table that she thought would be their dining room table until she had realized how big the dining room actually was, and how big a table they would need to fit the room. "Lois and Clark are coming over," she announced as she sat down with Jeff and Beth, both of whom just nodded as they watched Henry grasp at some of Beth's hair. Having cut her hair short again, Vicki was happy that she might avoid some of the earlier hair pulling.

"Are they bringing leftovers, too?" Jeff asked, and Vicki shook her head.

"I seriously doubt it, though from what I remember of Chloe's interaction with Mrs. Kent she does like to send food to people. I guess I won't be surprised if they come with a pie of some sort in hand. Anyway, Lois said that she wants to dig into my research on Intergang with me, which I guess means we'll discuss what I found and see if we can draw any conclusions together beyond what we both all ready think. I'm not sure if Clark's going to be working with us or not, but if he's not do you mind a third for football?"

"As much as I love our son, Henry is not yet the great conversationalist I foresee him being. Therefore Clark is welcome to join me."

"I think..." Closing her eyes for a second as she thought about Clark, the dream that was actually a memory from Chloe's life came to her. "Yeah, Clark was a quarterback in high school, and had a full ride offered to him to play for Metropolis University, although I can't seem to remember why he didn't take it. Guess I never dreamed that part of Chloe's life. And yes, it does still weird me out a little bit that I have two sets of memories in my head," Vicki said as Beth stared at her, able to sense the question that was about to come. "I have to work a little harder to remember stuff about Chloe than I do myself, and it's obviously not a complete set of memories, but while strange, I am sort of glad that it's a second set of memories and not me having some sort of personality disorder where I have two sets of memories, with one being a complete fabrication." Frowning, Vicki crossed her arms and leaned back a little bit. "Okay, technically that is what I have going on, minus the personality disorder, but at least it's deliberate and I'm not nuts."

Jeff made a noise at that, Vicki answering with a glare as he looked up and smiled innocently. "What? I'm not allowed to randomly snort anymore?"

"Random my big, non-droopy ass," Vicki muttered.

* * *

><p>Pulling her hair back into a much less sloppy ponytail as she noted Beth's car in the driveway, Lois stared at Vicki's house as she got it set and let her arms fall to her side. "Vicki wasn't kidding when she called her house big. It's not much smaller than ours."<p>

"Is it strange that we're all journalists, making journalist money, living in homes that should be out of our price range?" Clark asked as he handed her Vicki's Intergang file, Lois taking it from him as they started towards the front door.

"Considering our house was bought for us and Vicki's married to a well paid lawyer, I don't think the sizes of our homes are _that_ shocking. And to be fair, you and I are exceptionally well paid when it comes to being journalists. What I make is more understandable since I continue to make television appearances, though not as frequently as I did in New York. The fact that you make six figures and work only in print is amazing for 2025. I assume Vicki makes a similar number to what you do considering Bruce probably made an over the top offer to get her to come to Gotham, or at least that's probably what she remembers." Getting to the front door, Lois pushed the doorbell and was about to say something to Clark when the door came open, Beth standing on the other side. "Hey!" Lois said, smiling at her as she and Clark stepped inside. "I saw your car in the driveway and Vicki had mentioned you were here."

"I just came over to drop off some leftovers from yesterday," Beth said with a smile. "And since you're here, I was actually hoping to get a couple minutes to talk with you, maybe pick your brain a little bit?"

"Uh, sure," Lois said. Looking off to her left, Lois noticed that the living room was empty. "Why don't we step in here while Clark goes and says some hellos and lets people know we're talking?"

"I can do that," Clark said. "It's good seeing you again, Beth," he said with a smile before walking back into the house, Lois watching him go for a second before guiding Beth into the other room.

"So, what can I help you with? I'm not an expert on many things, but I'll happily give the best advice I am capable of giving, depending on the topic. One caveat: if you're going to ask me something involving complex math, you're better off talking to Clark."

Beth grinned for a second, but shook her head. "No, it's nothing like that, fortunately. I wanted to ask you how you came to grips with the reality of finding yourself unexpectedly pregnant."

Eyebrows climbing up her forehead, Lois said, "Oh, okay. That is something of a surprise, isn't it?" Beth nodded and shrugged, leaving Lois to take a deep breath and exhale loudly as she tried to find the right words. "Did you just find out?"

"No, I've known for a few weeks now, and had an idea earlier than that. Knowing how my body reacts to being pregnant, I had a feeling I might be having a baby before I had even missed my period. That was the big, glaring sign that led to the next big glaring sign, which was a positive pregnancy test. It's been weeks since I got confirmation yet I'm still in disbelief, and I was curious if it was the same way for you. I talked to Sam about it, since Tommy wasn't planned, but it's been thirteen years since she was greeted with that bit of news, and you know how Sam is. When she told me she was pregnant, it was a matter of fact thing, like she was telling me it was sunny outside or that she wanted to eat a sandwich. Her version of introspection is different than mine, and I thought you might have a more similar idea of what I'm dealing with."

Lois nodded, saying, "Yeah, I can see that. However, the first thing I would say is that you're in a much better situation than I was. Metropolis had _just_ been bombed, my house burned down, my husband captured and my cousin killed, at least as far as I knew. While Metropolis was bombed a couple months ago, you do not live there, which helps, and your home, husband and best friend are all still intact. Since we're talking about this, I assume you're not still trying to decide whether or not to actually have the baby?"

"Termination was briefly discussed but found to be unpalatable by both Chuck and I. Very pro-choice, obviously, but our choice is to have a third child. It won't be a financial burden, and while I'm going to miss sleep it will be very, very loved."

"Then I would say you have everything working for you. But I understand the feeling of shock that feels like it won't go away, that despite the bouts nausea and morning sickness, sore boobs and other things, it's difficult to come to grips with the idea that you're having another baby after thinking you were done having babies. I wish I could tell that the shock goes away, but mine didn't, not until I held the third baby I never thought I would have." Crossing her arms, Lois looked down at the ground and smiled. "Devon is probably more of a handful than either Jacob or Cass is because she seems to be so much like me, but I think you'll be amazed at how you'll wonder how you could have _ever _thought your family was complete before that baby was born. That's how it hit me. It wasn't even right away, but after Clark came back from being held captive. It was after he came home, after I felt like I could relax for the first time in the better part of a year, when we were all together for the first time that I realized that it was _now_ that my family was complete. And I know that you were always two and done person, that you all ready felt completion, but that will hit you again, because I was the same way. We had two children, a boy and a girl, and I felt like my family was fully cooked. But a funny thing occurred to me as Devon got older and more of her personality came out." Lois chuckled as she thought about the realization she'd had. "While all my children are technically Kents, Jacob and Cass are two little Kents in personality, too. Devon is a little Lane, a little me through and through, and I don't think there was any way I could have had children and not end up with at least one little Lane. Even if there's no such thing as karma or fate, I was always going to have a child that was exactly like me. So while the shock may not go away, or may just fade as the months go by, you will realize, or perhaps rationalize, that there is a reason beyond faulty birth control for you having another baby."

Beth sighed. "That's the embarrassing part. I got pregnant _after_ Chuck had a vasectomy."

"Well now that's just bad luck."

"Bad luck and not having paid enough attention to the small details. Anyway, thank you," Beth said with a smile as she started walking back out of the living room, Lois following her to the front door. "You basically gave me the answer I all ready knew, but it helps to hear it from somebody that has gone through it. It just takes time." Beth reached around and hugged her, saying, "Thanks," Lois returning the favor before giving a wave goodbye as Beth walked out of the house.

Turning, Lois walked the direction she had seen Clark go a few minutes earlier, finding him sitting with Vicki, Jeff and Henry at the table. Smiling, Lois gently plucked the baby from Vicki's arms and started planting kisses on his chubby cheeks. "Hi, Henry!" she said quietly, the baby wide eyed and not appearing too perturbed by the attention. "I would like to take this opportunity to say I love you, if the kisses weren't a good indicator of that! And you're all ready getting so big! I remember when you were a tiny little guy, brand new to the world. I know that's what I said to you last time we talked, when I saw you about a month ago, but that doesn't make it any less true." Making a face at Henry, he smiled at her, causing Lois to smile right back at him before looking back to everyone else. "Sorry. I get easily distracted by cute babies that I'm related to."

"You should have seen how easily she got distracted when our children were babies. One second she's talking about something and the next she's all about Jacob smiling at her out of the blue, going from one topic to the other mid-sentence. It would have been annoying if I hadn't been just as infatuated with whatever she was talking about in regards to our children."

"And don't pretend like you didn't do it too, Smallville," Lois said as she continued to smile and make faces at Henry as he smiled at her.

Watching out of the corner of her eye as Vicki got up from her chair, Lois allowed her to remove Henry from her arms before he was handed to Jeff. "Much as we love our distractions, I don't think we'll get a whole lot of the discussion you came over to have should we allow ourselves to love on Henry for the next hour or two, tempting as that is. How about you and I go discuss the investigation in the study while these three watch some football?"

"An excellent plan," Lois said as she nodded. "Clark didn't get to watch football yet today as he spent most of the morning in Metropolis and the rest of the morning wrangling unruly children with me. Almost feel sorry for Martha with some of the wildness that was going on today, but then again all of my kids are better behaved for Grandma than they are for me, so I'm sure she'll be fine. Shall we?"


	41. Chapter 41

- Chapter 41

"I'm surprised that you aren't in there working with them," Jeff said quietly, Henry having fallen asleep against him while they watched football. It was nice to know that his son all ready understood that it was fine to nap during a football game that you didn't care about, especially after a big meal like he'd just had. Vicki and Lois had only been in the study for a few minutes when Henry had made his hunger known, Vicki coming out and claiming him for a little while before having dropped their baby back into his arms. After a diaper change Henry had quickly started snoozing, Jeff deciding he was okay where he was rather than getting up and taking him to his crib. While waking him up was unlikely, Jeff was comfortable and had no need to chance it. "I figured this would be an investigation you would be heavily involved in."

"I'm involved, but I've learned a thing or two from being around those two, foremost being that whether it's Vicki or Chloe, when Lois and her cousin get on a roll they can leave even me in the dust. Often I find that it's safer if I stay out of the way and then keep them from doing the craziest of their crazy plans to get the story. One can only hope that Vicki and Lois together ends in plans that do not require Superman intervention."

Glancing over at Clark for a second, Jeff couldn't help that frown he shot his way. "How often was Superman intervention required to save Lois and Chloe?"

"More often than anybody was comfortable with. They both wanted the story and they were both willing to do whatever it took to get the story." Clark pulled one leg up, ankle resting on knee as he crossed his arms over his chest. "That said, Lois took fewer crazy risks after we had Jacob and Cassidy, and while I'm not as familiar with Vicki's record when it comes to crazy risks, I'm assuming that being a mom has given her some new perspective. Becoming a parent tends to lead to that sort of thing."

"I can attest to that," Jeff said quietly as he looked down at the sleeping Henry. Shaking his head as he looked back up at the football, he decided to change the subject to something that was less likely to make him worry that his wife was going to do something crazy in the name of getting the story on Intergang. "So, Vicki said that you played football in high school and had a scholarship offer to Metropolis University but didn't take it. Why not?"

"When I was taking my official visit to Met U, I found that a player from Smallville named Geoff Johns was a meta human and using his powers to gain a competitive advantage." Clark looked over and shrugged. "I didn't want to be tempted to do that, too, and I didn't want to accidentally hurt somebody, either. Still have trouble believing I took that risk in high school, but we don't always have perspective when we're eighteen, do we?"

"I think you can be forgiven for wanting to be a football star when you were younger, especially with all the talents you have. Just have to pass on your experiences to your son should he eventually want the same things."

"Seven weeks and you've got the dad thing down." Clark gave him a nod before looking back to the football. "Good job, but don't get complacent. There's always something new coming."

"You're catching me during one of my few hours of clarity. Trust me when I say that as much as I love Henry, and as much as being forty-one and having plenty of life experience helps me, I'm just as lost as everybody else seven weeks in. I'm just hoping that the immersion therapy keeps working."

* * *

><p>"Okay, so what's the most obvious reason for the fire at your house to have the same signatures as an Intergang fire?" Vicki asked, having arrived at that question after listening to Lois go through her thoughts and conclusions on the research she had done. It was that question that everything seemed to boil down to, no matter how she looked at things. Otherwise the whole thing was just a big coincidence and her conclusions were a colossal waste of time.<p>

"The obvious answer? The obvious answer is that they were mercenaries hired to kill me who wanted to make it look like Intergang and not a gang of highly trained mercs had set the fire." Lois looked away, spinning in the desk chair until she had gone all the way around. "Having had a lot of time to think about it, I am convinced they didn't expect the fire to kill me. They were laying low outside waiting for me to shoot out the door, but I caught them off guard by jumping through the window. If I run out the front door, they drop me. But what then? They toss my body back in the fire? Doubtful, since fire is a way for Intergang to send a message, not kill. They like to do that in a more up-close-and-personal fashion." Vicki watched as Lois spun back around the other way, stopping herself as she was facing her again, now looking her in the eye again. "If they went to the trouble of Intergang imitation, they're not going to leave my body as a calling card of something different having happened. So they take my body with them. What happens then?"

"They mangle your body, then take it back to the city and dump it at a bombing site," Vicki said quietly, frowning at how easily that answer had come to her. When Lois raised an eyebrow silently, she figured her conclusion needed an explanation. "We're working off the theory that the bombings and your house burning down are related. So if you know the bombings are going to happen, how do you get rid of a body? You make it look like the hundreds of other dead people and suddenly Lois Lane was killed in the bombings. With Clark gone missing the same day, he's presumed dead, somebody whose remains were never identified after the bombings."

"And the house?"

Vicki shrugged. "A footnote. With no calling card it probably never gets attributed to anybody, an unlikely coincidence that destroys the belongings of a couple killed in a terrorist attack. Even if they do an investigation and find that it is suspicious, where do they go with it? What kind of resources are they going to use that could otherwise be put towards the bombings?"

"You paint a thoroughly grim picture that I find all too likely to be true," Lois said quietly, her frown deepening as she looked down at the floor. "So that's the obvious answer, and the logic behind it. What's your less obvious answer?"

"How less obvious are you looking for?"

"How about Intergang bombing Metropolis less obvious?"

Eyes widening behind her glasses, Vicki couldn't help moving forward in her chair. "Wow, that is definitely less obvious. What would lead you to that kind of conclusion?"

"As I went through your research a few times, I realized there was a question I didn't ask as much as I should have: Who took over Intergang after Bruno Mannheim disappeared? Why did that question come to me? Because my house burning down was identical to known Intergang fires. Like you said, we're working off the theory that the people who burned down my house knew about the bombings, and while that makes the obvious answer attempted copycat arson, doesn't it also put Intergang into consideration? What if it's not copycat arson, but is just Intergang committing arson again?"

Vicki had to concede that such a scenario was a possibility, but the theory still seemed to have plenty of holes in it. "But why in the world would they want to bomb Metropolis? It's their base of operations, their central hub of activity!"

"Seems to shift attention away from them, doesn't it? That's why this is in the less obvious answers category. That, and why would Intergang specifically target Chloe? When this idea came to me I looked through her old articles and from what I could tell her work on Intergang was limited." Lois took a swig of water before continuing, Vicki taking the opportunity to do the same. "Perry seemed to keep her on the beat of the strange and abnormal, as one assumes he was familiar with her history of following that kind of story in Smallville. While there was an occasional nutbar metahuman working for Intergang, they mostly hired people with guns, not powers, so their beef with her would be limited. One would think them as likely to go after you as they would her, based on the amount of published work pointing our their illegal activities. So there's no good answer to that question _or_ why they would bomb Metropolis, unless..."

"...Unless you figure out who was running things," Vicki said, concluding Lois's thought. "If you find out that it's somebody with some serious hatred of Chloe and Metropolis, that whole Mr. Stanton nonsense is simply a cover for Intergang's new boss." Suddenly a named popped into Vicki's mind. "You think Lex got control of Intergang, don't you?"

A small smile came onto Lois's face as she looked up. "He's not the reason that everything bad in Metropolis happens, but based on previous experience he's the reason many, _many_ bad things in Metropolis happen. Jailed or not, he had the influence, contacts, brains and sadistic tendencies to grab control of Intergang and use it to his ends."

"But why would he? If he could gain control of Intergang and use it to bomb Metropolis, why would he need them to do it? Why not just use his own men?"

"I've rarely been able to figure out Lex's thought process, and I doubt I'm going to start now. And you have no idea how much I'm bothered by the fact that this idea makes sense, aside from the fact that Lex might have tried to take Chloe's life _again_." Lois sighed, shaking her head before letting it fall back. "When the first bombings happened, Lex was the first name that came to mind as to who would do it. I knew it was out there, that it was more likely to be somebody else with him behind bars, and when the Mr. Stanton chatter started I bought into it. Add in Clark missing and Chloe presumed dead, a third pregnancy wearing me down and shuttling between Metropolis and Smallville before moving to Smallville entirely, my research time was limited. By the time Clark got home Devon was a newborn and I was doing research maybe once every couple of weeks. When we moved to Connecticut and I started at the _Times_, I basically abandoned it. Out of sight, out of mind, which I can't say is something that I'm proud of."

"With all the things you just listed, I think it's amazing that you carried on your research into the bombings for as long as you did," Vicki said, hoping to make Lois feel a little better about not trusting her instincts when it came to Lex and the bombings. "If your thinking proves true and Lex was involved with Intergang to perpetrate the bombings, you still had a million things on your plate. Metropolis wanted nothing to do with you, a third baby, a missing-and-presumed-dead husband and not-quite-as-confirmed-as-it-seemed dead cousin. I think mass rejection, missing loved ones, new babies, new cities and new jobs are fine excuses for not following through on an investigation."

Lois sighed loudly, spinning slowly in the chair again. "And all it took for me to get back into it was Metropolis being bombed and my cousin presenting me with the research I should have done myself to see what I thought about it. "You did amazing work, by the way," Lois said as she stopped spinning, "the work that I wish I had taken the initiative to do. Anyway, that's my moment of self pity for the month. Now it's time to do what I love, which is make the bad guys sorry they ever contemplated being bad guys, this time with my cousin."

"And how exactly are we going to do that?" Vicki said, smiling a little as Lois straightened herself out and sounded more like herself. "While I like the attitude, everything we've been talking about is theory, conjecture and maybe some wishful thinking. We can't even prove that your house was burned down by Intergang, let alone connect them to Lex and both to the bombings."

"This is true," Lois said with a shrug, but starting to smile. "But as your memories of Chloe's life may tell you, when Clark, Chloe and I came up with a wild theory about how something had happened, we were usually on the right track."

"Yeah, see, that's what I don't get." Scooting forward in her chair, she rested her elbows on her knees. "How were you guys able to always find these remote connections between unrelated things that would lead to a story breaking? That's something about Chloe's memories I haven't been able to figure out."

"It was Smallville. We all spent years in that town, surrounded by crazy shit. Most small towns, the things never get figured out. But then, most small towns don't have somebody with a brain like Chloe's, who would obsess over the weird details of crimes. Add in Clark, who wants to help people, and can actually take on and subdue the metahumans. You put those two together as close friends and you have some weird as hell crimes getting solved."

"And then there's you," Vicki said, "the wildcard. You got dragged into solving the weird stuff against your will, because Chloe was presumed dead, the first time. You kept being forced to do investigations until you finally started writing about them, joining Chloe on the path to being a journalist, and dragging Clark into it with you." Stopping, Vicki frowned and looked away, realizing what she had just said. "Huh. I didn't realize that I knew that until just now."

"However you know it, you're right. That's why I wrote that without Chloe, there is no Lois Lane, at least not the one you know. There's probably not even the Clark Kent you know. She made Clark write, she made me write, and eventually we did it professionally." Lois got a faraway look in her eyes as she continued, shaking her head a little bit. "Without that, do we fall in love? Is there a Jacob, Cass and Devon? It always comes back to Chloe for me. You can call her Clark's sidekick for all the time she spent working with him, but how many sidekicks are the reason that the hero finds his soul mate, let alone meets her? What sidekick besides Chloe can claim to have been there when something as amazing as the Justice League started?"

"I don't think you can call her a sidekick when you put it that way."

"No, you can't," Lois said as she nodded. "I know it didn't end well for her, that her last four or five years weren't the last four or five years that she deserved, but she lived an amazing life." Lois looked over at her, her smile looking sadder now. "I hope you won't mind me telling Henry about Chloe when he's old enough to understand the situation. Granted, _I'm_ barely old enough to understand the situation."

Vicki sighed. This wasn't the first time she had considered having to one day tell her son that his mother had once been somebody else, and not in the figurative sense in which many people used that phrase. "Depending on how much more of Chloe's life I remember, I think it's something that will need to happen, especially if Henry is at all like me. Or her. Curiosity seems like something that runs in the family."

"I will never claim to understand much about genetics, but if Henry isn't a naturally curious person then I will never understand _anything_ about genetics. The only thing I would find to be a bigger oddity would be is if my own children weren't all naturally curious."

Scratching at her eyebrow, Vicki sat back a little, allowing herself to slouch rather than attempt to keep decent posture. "It seems like, ever since I found out about Chloe and why I was dreaming about being her, she has been one of the two things in my thoughts, along with Henry. It's amazing to think that she's in my head, that a whole person is in my head, basically hibernating while I go about my life. The more I think about it, and I've had plenty of time to think recently, the more I almost feel bad about the fact that she doesn't get to experience life. I know that she chose this, chose to let me have a life with Jeff, to realize I loved him, marry him, have a baby with him. I exist because she chose to let me exist, and I feel like..." Realizing what she had been about to say, Vicki straightened. It was something that she hadn't even realized she was thinking until that moment, something she didn't remember thinking before.

"You feel like what?" Lois asked, making Vicki realize that she should probably say what she had been thinking, strange a thought as it was.

"I feel like I owe Chloe my life, and the least I can do is let her meet her son."

* * *

><p>Blinking, Lois tried to understand the full context of what Vicki had said. She thought she owed Chloe a chance to meet Henry? While Lois could obviously get behind the idea of Chloe being back, even temporarily, she was surprised that it was something that Vicki would consider. There was no guarantee that Chloe would make the same choice to bring Vicki back like she had the last time Bruce had awakened her, choosing to let Vicki live her life. Who could say what she would choose to do now that Henry existed. "Look," Lois started to say, trying to choose her words carefully. "I am going to be <em>way<em> down on the list of people that tries to talk you out of bringing Chloe back to meet Henry, however that may work. But I hope this isn't something you're coming up with out of the blue, that it's something you've thought about for more than twelve seconds."

"No, that's about as much thought as I've put into it," Vicki said as she stood up. "And while I don't feel a sense of obligation, I feel like I should at least give Chloe a chance to meet Henry. He's her son as much as he is mine, if not more so. In a weird way it's kind of like she's the nature and I'm the nurture, if that makes sense."

Lois nodded, understanding what Vicki was saying. "Then the question I will pose to you is this: since you can't guarantee that Chloe is going to choose to bring you back, how sure are you that you want to put your life into the hands of somebody else? Whether or not you come back will be totally up to her. I won't try to talk her out of staying if that's what she decides, I highly doubt Clark will, and no matter what Jeff says there's nothing he or anybody else would be able to do because Bruce would never force Chloe to become you against her will."

"From everything I've learned about Chloe through her memories, what you've told me and all the information you gave me before Henry was born, I know that once she makes up her mind about something, she sticks to that decision. Is there a chance that she won't bring me back?" Vicki shrugged and turned, walking towards the door of the study. Lois got up and followed her as Vicki walked out, continuing as Lois caught up to her. "There is that chance, yes. This isn't an act without risk, but if I stopped doing risky things, I would live a very boring life and never leave the house. While we haven't lived here all that long, I'm pretty sure that I would get tired of not going outside." Lois crossed her arms as Vicki opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water, twisting off the cap and downing some before continuing. "Look, there's risk in everything and I think-"

Lois held up a hand, cutting Vicki off. "I get the point, which is that everything in life is risky and that you're trying to change the subject because you don't want to think about not existing anymore. But since I basically have two cousins involved in this decision, I want to make sure that one is thinking through what the other might do, or choose not to do. This could be permanent, Vicki, and you can't pretend that isn't the case."

"I'm not pretending that this wouldn't have a very, very small chance of being permanent. What I'm saying is that in the knowledge I have of Chloe, of how she thought and how she took action, I think the likelihood of her choosing not to bring me back is minuscule." Glancing off towards the other room as she heard Henry start crying, Lois was about to continue the discussion, but when she looked back Vicki was on the move again, this time heading in the direction of her crying baby. Frowning, Lois followed, unsure of why she felt the need to keep pressing this point. Having Chloe back at all would be amazing, but Lois didn't feel like she should get in the habit of sacrificing one cousin so she could get another cousin back, and if she went from Vicki to Chloe and back to Vicki, it was probably going to start feeling that way. "Mommy's here," she heard Vicki say as she picked up a bawling Henry from Jeff's arms, not even giving him time to protest before she had swept Henry up and started cooing at him.

"Don't think Henry is going to shield you from me making sure you aren't making this decision lightly," Lois said as she sat down next to Clark, who seemed to have tuned out the crying baby and was still firmly focused on the football he had been watching with Jeff. She had a difficult time imagining how he could focus on the sport while a baby was crying virtually into his ear, but being able to do odd things like that probably came with the territory of being Super. She was just glad it was a habit he had never gotten into when their children were crying babies, at least not that she was aware of. Had she found him doing that with one of their children she would have rained hell down onto him.

"Decision?" Jeff asked, looking at her before getting up and walking over to stand next to Vicki as she tried to comfort Henry, who didn't seem interested in being comforted. "You two went into the study to discuss Intergang, which means that I'm probably not going to be thrilled that there's a decision to be made that shouldn't be taken lightly."

"Welcome to my world," Lois heard Clark say. She frowned at him and popped him in the biceps with her elbow, though it was more for show than anything else since she ended up with a sore elbow and it was doubtful he even noticed. Her elbowing him in the arm was probably equivalent to her getting kicked by a mosquito.

Vicki being focused on Henry, Lois decided to fill Jeff in on what they had been discussing. "Vicki feels that since Chloe chose to let her keep living, to allow her to make the life with you that has brought her to this place of husband, son and mortgage, she should give Chloe the chance to meet her son."

"Tattletale," Vicki said quietly as Henry started calming down, but Lois caught it over the baby's cries.

"Yes, I am a tattletale," Lois said with a shake of her head, doing her best to not roll her eyes. Watching as Vicki sat down, Jeff following with very wide eyes, she continued. "Call me crazy, but this seems like the sort of thing that you should tell your husband about. Think of this as me ripping off your band aid."

Jeff nodded at that. "Yes! This is definitely something your husband should know about! What the hell happened in there? How in the world did you end up deciding that Chloe should get to meet Henry when you two were in there talking about Intergang and houses burning down?"

Clark beat both her and Vicki to the punch when it came to a response. "This is actually the standard end result of a long conversation with Lois. It's a little bit like wandering in the woods. Things get confusing, you occasionally get lost and by the end something strange has ended up happening."

"Thanks a lot, Smallville." She pointed up at him as he started to smile at her. "And just because you can't keep up doesn't mean others can't. Vicki and I went along without so much as a hiccup and were in the crazy theories that will be difficult to prove portion of the conversation until she started talking about owing Chloe things."

"Can we get back to this whole Chloe being here and Vicki not thing that I find very interesting and only REALLY weird to have even come up, let alone discussed and decided?" Jeff asked, pausing before adding, "And aren't you supposed to have some solid evidence, rather than circumstantial evidence, that points to a crazy theory rather than just coming up with one and then proving it to be true?"

"Technically, yes," Lois said, but before she could say anything more Clark jumped in again.

"I'm not sure yet about Vicki, but Lois and Chloe have always tended to see Occam's Razor as a challenge. Circumstantial evidence in Smallville always pointed to a crazy 'What if?' scenario that they would investigate rather than accepting the simplest explanation, which would have been an accurate explanation in the vast majority of places. As it turns out, they were usually right, and this gave them both a penchant for seeing circumstantial evidence as much more indicative of what really happened than most would find it. And honestly, if the simplest explanation were usually true, I doubt either would have ever found journalism nearly as interesting as they did." Clark shrugged, half smiling before looking back to the football. "Plus, the whole city of Metropolis would be on anti-psychotics because they claimed to see a flying man from another world on a daily basis."

Ridiculous as that last statement had been, Lois couldn't help wondering if putting a whole city on anti-psychotics would have prevented people like Toyman from ever becoming the nutjobs that they were. "While I don't see Occam's Razor as a challenge, the rest of that is more or less true. I was telling Vicki earlier that the reason Clark and I are so good at uncovering some seriously crazy stuff, and the reason that Chloe was so good at it, is because we honed our skills in Smallville. Chances were that Clark was saving you from the crazy stuff happening in Smallville, no matter who you were, and even then one was more likely to survive the town if he or she came to expect the weird rather than the simplest explanation of any crime."

"That one's my fault, since I asked the question," Jeff muttered. "While that's interesting, what I really want to know is why you, Vicki, are talking about having Bruce work whatever hoodoo voodoo he worked for you to exist in the first place to bring Chloe back? I appreciate that she can technically be classified as Henry's biological mother, but she all ready chose not to be here. You falling in love with me was part of that choice, which means she has forgone the right to come back and perhaps choose not to bring you back."

"There's no guarantee, but I'm very sure she would bring me back. I'm still in love, but now I'm married and now there's a baby involved. She's not going to attempt to acquire my life for her own because that's not who Chloe was. And after her mom split on her when she was young, something we have in common, she is not going to take off and leave Henry without a mother. I believe Lois will confirm that for me."

"The logic is sound," Lois said with a sigh. "If this is really what you want, Vicki, what you really think should happen, then I'll support your decision, but like you said, there are no guarantees."

Vicki looked up from a now quieted Henry, smiling slightly. "The only guarantee in my life these days is that I won't get a night of uninterrupted sleep. And I guess there's death and taxes, but you all ready knew about those. Anyway, it's not going to happen today, but I think it's the right thing to do. Chloe led a hard life, and while she's not here anymore, she should at least get the chance to meet her son. It's the least I can do to thank her for the life I've made."

* * *

><p>Following Vicki into Wayne Manor, Lois handed off Henry's carrier to Jeff as they stopped just inside the front door. She had offered to carry him inside while the couple had conversed about what Vicki was going to have Bruce do, Jeff still not being thrilled with the idea, which seemed to make Vicki all the more convinced that this was something she should do. Henry didn't seem to have liked her being the one to carry him inside, and her attempts to assure him that she had plenty of experience with babies had fallen on deaf ears. Apparently he didn't care that she had three children of her own, which she thought was kind of selfish, but then again he was a baby and babies were all about themselves. She had even changed his diaper for him while they had been driving to the manor, but that hadn't won her any points. Right now she thought he wanted a voice in his ear he was more familiar with, as hers was one he didn't hear nearly as often as he heard that of Vicki, Jeff or even Beth, who had also tagged along on this excursion. Lois still wasn't entirely sure as to how she had come to be included in this, though it made sense that she would want to meet Chloe. It wouldn't have been all that shocking for Sam to have come along, too.<p>

"I'm going to take him into the other room, see if he'll settle down a little bit," Jeff said, indicating with his head the direction he was going to go.

"I'll go with you," Beth said, following him in the other direction. Lois followed Vicki into the main den, where they found Bruce sitting and staring at a piece of paper, putting it down as they approached. Vicki sat down on a couch, Lois taking a seat in a chair on the other side of a small coffee table.

"You should do it now," Vicki said out of the blue, Lois caught by surprise that she wanted to do it right that second. "If we wait then Jeff is going to be in my ear for an hour about why this is potentially a bad idea only to have it happen anyway, so while he's with Henry you should do whatever it is you have to do to bring Chloe back."

Bruce got up and walked over, sitting down next to Vicki. "Are you sure?"

She nodded, and Bruce leaned in, putting his mouth next to her ear. Confused, Lois wasn't sure what was going on until Vicki blinked a few times and said, "What..." as she looked around the room until her eyes focused on Lois. _"Lois_?" she said quietly.

All it took was that one word for Lois to know that it wasn't Vicki that was looking at her anymore. "Chloe."


	42. Chapter 42

- Chapter 42

Blinking, it took Chloe a second to orient herself as she realized where she was. The last thing she remembered was sitting down in the machine so that she could become Vicki again, which meant that something serious must be going down for Bruce to have brought her back, to have needed her instead of Vicki. "What..." she started but trailed off when she stopped looking around and focused on who was in front of her. "_Lois_?" she said, not believing that her cousin was actually sitting in front of her.

"Chloe," Lois said in response, a wide smile taking over her face as she jumped up out of her chair. Chloe got up, walking around the coffee table to envelop Lois in a hug, Lois doing the same to her. "I knew... I mean Vicki said... God, it just wasn't the same. She's so close, but she's not you."

"So I guess you've gotten to know her then," Chloe said quietly, causing Lois to pull away.

"You don't remember? Bruce said you remember everything from your time as Vicki. Details, emotions, color of the sky..."

Pulling a hand back through her hair and finding it shorter than she had the last time Bruce had awakened her, Chloe shrugged. "It takes a few minutes before all the memories sort of... come to me, I guess. And I really hope that sky is still blue, because I can't imagine it being another color as anything but bad, and Superman level bad, not Chloe level bad. Speaking of, why am I back? Not because you figured out that Vicki is me, except not me, I hope."

"No, of course not. I respected your wishes after I met Vicki almost a year and a half ago. Bruce told me what had happened two days later, so the mystery didn't last long."

Confused, Chloe frowned as she pulled Vicki's glasses off, just then realizing that she had them on, things behind Lois getting a little blurry. "Huh, guess I really need these things now," she muttered before looking up at Lois. "Considering I highly doubt you convinced Vicki to stop existing, especially since I chose to live as her rather than as myself, what's going on?" Feeling something weird on her left hand, Chloe glanced at it quickly to make sure there was nothing on it before doing a double take, finding herself with a wedding ring on. "Vicki got married?" she asked, looking up to find Lois nodding. "To Jeff?" Lois nodded again, to which Chloe had to shake her head. "Guess I can't say I didn't at least see the possibility for that. She was totally in love with him."

"Yeah, there's something else," Lois started, but she was interrupted by a crying baby, of all things, and a voice calling out from the foyer.

"Vicki, Henry seems to be in one of those moods where only you holding him can calm him down." She recognized Jeff instantly as he walked through the doorway, Chloe not even sure that the recognition was related to the last time Bruce had brought her back. He was trailed by his sister, whom she knew she hadn't met the last time Bruce had brought her back. but Chloe only barely registered her as she couldn't take her eyes off the wailing baby Jeff held. "That, or he's hungry, which would also require you to hold him since we didn't bring any bottles with us. Not great forethought, all things considered. Whatever it is, he's looking for..." He stopped just a few feet from her and seemed to notice that she wasn't wearing glasses and was staring wide eyed at both him and the baby. "...his mom." Chloe noticed him look past her, to Lois behind her, but she kept staring at the baby. "You all ready did it?"

"Vicki had a baby?" Chloe asked, though she barely managed to get her voice above a whisper.

"That's why you're back, Chloe," Lois said behind her. "Vicki wanted to give you a chance to meet your son, Henry. She figured she owed you one considering your choice to have her in the world instead of you."

That's when all of Vicki's memories started pouring into her brain, or at least that's what it felt like. Closing her eyes, all of the memories of the last one year, eight months and twenty-two days seemed to rush into her head, and with sudden clarity Chloe could recall Vicki's wedding, could feel how in love Vicki was with Jeff, could sense how much Jeff and Beth cared for Vicki. She remembered Vicki telling Lois that she was claiming her as a cousin because she wanted all the family she could get in life. And Henry. She remembered Henry. "My son," she said before swallowing, opening her eyes again to the sight of her baby boy crying. Without hesitation she reached out, pulling him from Jeff's arms and into her own before he could protest handing Henry over to a woman he hadn't technically met before. "It's okay, Henry," she whispered to him as he cried again her chest, her fingers drawing little circles on his back a millisecond before Chloe remembered that was what Henry liked. "Don't worry, baby boy. Mommy's here."

* * *

><p>Even if she hadn't heard Chloe say that she had a son, she knew to the second when she had seen her cousin fall totally in love with the baby she now held and spoke softly to. Whether Vicki's memories had come back to her or Chloe had realized that she had a baby, the change in her had been instantaneous. Lois would venture to guess that she had Vicki's memories now, considering the way she was comforting Henry. The way she held him, the way she was drawing little circles on his back, were both done exactly how Vicki would be doing them, so either Chloe remembered or was a total natural at being a mom to Henry. Much as she would like to believe the latter, nobody instinctually knew the exact thing a baby liked. Probably. Motioning to Jeff and Beth, she got them to step aside closer to Bruce, leaving Chloe standing by herself, now bouncing Henry gently. If she hadn't been intent on trying to give Chloe a minute alone with Henry and explain what had happened to Jeff and Beth, she could have stared at the sight for hours.<p>

"What the hell happened?" Jeff asked quietly, forcing Lois to focus on him rather than on Chloe and Henry. "I thought this involved some sort of machine or contraption that messed with her brain."

"No, the thing that brought Chloe back was always a code phrase that only Bruce knows," Lois said crossing her arms as she kept one eye on Chloe and the other on Jeff. "The device is only needed to bring Vicki back, as far as I know."

"But just like that? I thought I was going to have at least one more chance of talking her out of this!"

Lois shrugged, not really having anything to say about that. He wasn't going to have talked Vicki out of doing this, no matter what lawyer trick he had tried to use. "I know you've been caught off guard, but it happened so quickly that _I_ was caught off guard and I was sitting all of ten feet from her. You'd have only been delaying the inevitable."

"I know, I know. I just..." Jeff left it at that, and Lois couldn't help but sympathize with how powerless he must feel in this situation. His wife had chosen to put her continued existence into the hands of somebody else, and if that person decided Vicki wasn't going to be around anymore there was nothing he could do about it.

"She's not going to take her away from you, Jeff. Chloe's not that type of person. Believe it or not, Vicki is just Chloe with some memory modifications, so you can trust that she'll do the right thing."

"She tried to kill somebody, Lois! Vicki wouldn't do that!" Jeff said, and though he had attempted to say it in a whisper it hadn't exactly come out that way.

"No, she wouldn't," Lois heard Chloe say, and watched her walk over with a quieter Henry, who looked like he had cried himself out. "Vicki is a version of me, Jeff. The life she remembers is a lot more normal and a lot less centered around the day-to-day or week-to-week actions of metahumans. I let all that get to me, let it warp my world view. That, plus years of working on bringing Lex to justice only to have it blow up in my face and lose my job as a result, plus losing my fiancé and father soon after, put me in a bad place. When Lex screwed me again I was so far down the wrong path that I thought I was doing the best thing for the world in trying to kill him. So this is my penance for that action. I no longer live as part of the world, instead giving Vicki that opportunity. Like other prisoners, I apparently get to see my family on occasion, though even that is unexpected. When Bruce put me back in the chair last time, I assumed I was gone for good." Chloe finally looked up from Henry then, a small smile on her face. "I can't express how grateful I am that Vicki is giving me a chance to meet Henry, to get to know this little boy who is a part of me. And I can't tell you how much Vicki loves you guys. She feels about you, Beth, the way I feel about Lois. A sister who isn't technically a sister. And you, Jeff... I know she says that she loves you, a lot, but you should know that she means it as much as ever every single time she says it."

Chloe looked back down to the baby who now seemed to be sleeping against her, resting her head against his again. "And you, Henry, are every ounce of love that is in me, that is in Vicki, made human. Believe me, it's just goofy sounding enough to be true. I may not see you very much throughout your life, but there are only two people in the world that love you as much as I do, and even then it's a close call. You're all the best parts of me, all my good genes, and all the best parts of Vicki, the confident smarts and easy smile, plus all the good stuff you got from your dad. If you ever need me I'll be here for you, but I'm pretty sure Vicki and Jeff will be able to handle things."

Watching Chloe walk away again, still murmuring to Henry about how much she loved him, Lois had to take a deep breath and rub at the corner of her eye. That one moment was what she had hoped Chloe would get after Vicki had proposed bringing her back, and it was better than she had thought it would be, to see Chloe connecting with her son, talking to Henry the way she was.

* * *

><p>Closing his eyes, Jeff let his head fall back and rest against the couch. It had only been an hour since Bruce had brought Chloe back, and perhaps the longest hour of his life. He thought that this must be what Lois had felt like when she had first met Vicki, when she had seen her cousin but it had turned out to be somebody else. Somebody similar, somebody close, but not the same person. He hadn't had much chance to get to know Chloe yet, as she had been focused on Henry and had Lois hovering around her, who seemed to be trying to soak in every minute with Chloe that she could get. Maybe it was that it hadn't seemed real before, the idea of Vicki being one of two people to occupy the same brain, that made time seem to stretch out so much. Maybe if he'd had Henry time would have passed more quickly.<p>

All the mannerisms were different. Chloe had confirmed that she had all of Vicki's memories, and while she did everything the same with Henry, she moved differently, had different mannerisms. Vicki walked with sureness in her step, an occasional playfulness in the sway of her hips. She wasn't yet back to the lithe form she had been in before getting pregnant, and the pregnancy had changed her walk a little bit, but there was always something in her movements that let him know it was Vicki. He didn't see that anymore. Chloe moved with a total sense of awareness, her extensive history with surprise attacks and intensive martial arts training probably having something to do with it. She moved in a way that made her always look ready for something or someone to jump out at her, always ready to react. She seemed to have a nervous tick where she ran a hand back through her hair, too, seeming to do it without thinking about it, the movement having nothing to do with her hair. And Chloe didn't smile nearly as much or as easily as Vicki did. Vicki could light up a room with her smile. Chloe's smile seemed more like a flickering candle in a drafty house.

What had his life become that he could see his wife and find that there was somebody else there instead, and that might not even be the strangest thing that had happened to him in the last two months? Vicki Vale, the amazing woman he had fallen in love with and married hadn't even existed until Bruce Wayne, of all people, had invented her! Today was the first time he was getting to meet the person who had grown up in possession of Vicki's body, before there had ever been a Vicki. And the life Chloe had led was incredible. She had grown up with Superman, had inspired and pushed Lois Lane to become the journalist that the world knew so well, had seen and been a part of the first iteration of the Justice League. She had gone toe to toe with Lex Luthor time and time again, and though her fight with him had ended badly, few could say they took on a man like Luthor and came out on top as often as she had. Chloe had an amazing history, and getting to know her would probably be an experience in and of itself, but... but she wasn't Vicki, and that's what mattered to him.

It wasn't that not spending time with Vicki bothered him; he wasn't the clingy type who needed to be around his significant other at all times. It was the thought that his wife only existed as memories in another woman's consciousness right now that wore on him, and he thought that idea was what made every minute seem to take so long. It was another minute where his wife's future was merely a decision.

Out of the blue it came to him that it was the two year anniversary of the first time he and Vicki had slept together, a steamy night of what was supposed to have been a fling, if not a lengthy fling, but had turned out to be his first night with the last woman he planned to ever have sex with. The only reason he could fathom as to why he would remember the date of when they first had sex is because he felt like this was also the day he could lose his wife. And now it wasn't just him, but Henry that could be impacted. With all of Vicki's memories Chloe was handling Henry perfectly, holding him the same way Vicki always did, using the same movements and voices and everything, but it didn't make Jeff feel better. The only thing he could think to compare it to was if he had married an identical twin, one of a very close pair who were distinctive in their similarities, and his wife's sister was perfect with their son, just like his mother. But it just wasn't the same thing. Not to somebody like him.

"Penny for your thoughts?" a familiar voice said from in front of him, Jeff almost smiling at hearing it.

"An insulting offer that I'll dignify with only this non-response response," Jeff answered as he opened his eyes. He watched as Chloe held a sleeping Henry, the baby seeming to have finally conked after being fussy most of the last hour. She slowly walked over to the couch and sat down gently, making sure she hadn't jostled Henry too much after doing so. Reaching out, Jeff gently ran a hand over Henry before focusing on Chloe. There was very little expression on her face. Instead there was a tightness around her eyes, as she looked back at him. "Normally I like being given the chance to get to know people that I think I'll like. This feels different."

"Try meeting the man that you're married to for the first time on the same day you get to meet your infant son. It's a little bit of a trip, even when you remember the whole relationship and every minute of your son's life. I approve of the elopement in Vegas, by the way. Vicki's a lot better at going with the flow than I ever was when it came to my love life."

"Funny," Jeff said with a shake of his head as he looked back to Henry, finding peace in his son's slumber. "Vicki thought that your desire for marriage and children was what had influenced her to make the decisions she did."

"I wish I could take credit for having any influence over Vicki's decisions, but I think she simply stumbled into a situation where she found happiness she hadn't planned on looking for. And it isn't that she was unhappy or unfulfilled before she met you. She had no qualms about being alone, and until she found you it was he preferred method of being. You two... well, I guess you're just one of those things in life where things zig instead of zagging, and it's a happy zig. I was a lot more likely to get the painful, emotionally scarring zags."

"But she didn't want to get married," Jeff countered as he looked back up at Chloe, who shook her head as if to say that wasn't the case. "Come on. She's told me many times that she didn't want to get married."

"No, she told you that she didn't _plan_ to get married. She wasn't opposed to the idea of marriage, the prospect of falling in love and growing old with somebody, and even having a kid or two along the way. But that wasn't her priority until she met somebody that made her want to make it a priority." Chloe smiled at him, but the way she smiled was Vicki's smile through and through, the one she got whenever they were discussing something and she made a point he would have trouble refuting. "You were the catalyst, Jeff. What she felt with you made her realize that she didn't need to limit her happiness to one aspect of her life. It certainly helped that she met you after attaining the goal of being lead investigative reporter for a major publication, but still, there's something about the way the two of you click. There's a Lois and Clark 'meant to be' vibe to it."

"You think so?"

"I know so. Nobody has a better perspective on your relationship than I do because I have all the inside information _and_ an outside perspective. Back in my journalism days, I believe I would have qualified this as being in the catbird seat, though I have no idea what that actually means."

"Something to do with a James Thurber story," Jeff said, "but I'm not remembering what exactly it is at the moment. And I think we're getting tangential unless you came here to discuss Thurber or things related to Thurber."

"I'm glad that Vicki married a man who can use the word tangential so easily. A good vocabulary is a highly underrated asset." Chloe smiled at him for a moment before looking away, gently resting her cheek against Henry for a moment before he stirred a little, making her slowly and gently pull away and eye him for a second. Jeff did the same, wondering if he was going to wake up, but he didn't, instead stilling and going back to sleep. "I can't believe I have a son," she said quietly, "and that I can love him this much."

"Henry's easy to love." Getting off the couch, Jeff walked slowly across the room, pulling open a hidden little door and grabbing a couple bottles of water before walking back and sitting down again, holding out a bottle to Chloe, who took it from him with a small smile. "I know I shouldn't ask this, and that I don't need to ask it, but it's for my peace of mind, so I apologize if you're offended by the implication. I'm going to get my wife back, right?"

"You are," Chloe said. Jeff wished that her answer made him feel more at ease, but he didn't think that would happen until he had Vicki back. "I'm not going to take Henry's mother away from him. She's who he knows, who has raised him for these first nearly two months of his life. I guess me being his birth mother is the way Vicki thinks of it. But she's his real mother, the woman who is raising him. She's better suited to raise him, better at dealing with what life throws at her than I've been for a long time."

"I can confirm that Vicki is very good at taking whatever gets thrown at her and going with it. My nearly getting killed in her apartment didn't seem to phase her."

"It didn't seem to, no, but it scared her. Made her realize how much she cared about you, too, and how quickly she had come to care for you. First day of the rest of her life kind of thing, it turned out."

"Yeah, I remember that feeling, but it came earlier for me. I asked Vicki out with the intention of it being lots of heat for a little while. I had done the legwork, and from everything I had heard she would be down for it. But then... then the first date was perfect. _Perfect_," Jeff repeated, motioning with his hands indistinctly as he tried to get across how he had felt about it. "By halfway through the second date I knew that this would only be a short term relationship if she chose for it to be a short term relationship. I had never felt that way so quickly before."

"I wish I could tell you how happy I am for you, and for Vicki. That you two found each other, got married and had Henry..." Jeff looked over at her as she trailed off, finding her watching Henry sleep again. He remembered what it was like to meet Henry, to fall in love with him all at once and watch him sleep so peacefully. He and Vicki both still watched him, and he doubted they would stop until he was old enough to tell them it was weird. "Henry makes the choice to let Vicki live while I exist in only memory form seem less like I'm trying to escape my guilt and more like there's a real point to why I'm doing it. It's probably just me rationalizing, but right now all I want to focus on is what's best for Henry. I do have one favor to ask, though."

"Woman who controls the fate of my wife asking for a favor? Doesn't sound ominous at all," Jeff muttered, getting a look from Chloe that made him think of Lois. They were not cousins who looked alike, but man, they could glare with the best of them. "Sorry. Long history of being a smart ass and stressful situations have a tendency to make it worse."

"Yeah, I have a few memories from Vicki that can confirm that. When I was thinking through the memories of Henry's birth earlier, the comment you made after the nurse told her she was progressing nicely was just awful. Not only was the comment not funny, the timing was _terrible_."

"In my defense-"

"Nope," Chloe said, cutting him off. "Lightening the mood is not a defense for being sarcastic in a lazy and unfunny fashion when your wife is in labor. And the only reason I'm taking you to task for this is because Vicki never will. She loves you too much to focus on that bit of ridiculousness. Now, as far as the favor I wanted to ask of you, it's not small, but it's also unenforceable. It's totally up to you and Vicki, though mostly Vicki."

"Maybe you should be recording a message for her again, like you did for if she found out that she used to be you," Jeff said, but Chloe immediately gave a little shake of her head.

"It's mostly up to her, but I want the request to come from you. I would like you to ask her to consider giving me four or five hours once every year or two, just so I can keep up. This whole thing was supposed to be a way for me to hide, and was never really supposed to be permanent. It is permanent now, though, because of you and Henry, because of Beth and Sam and all the others. Vicki built a family, an entire life in Gotham, and I won't take that from her. I just..." Chloe gave a sad smile as she looked down at Henry for a second before looking back up at him. "I'd like a chance to see Lois now and again, maybe get to know my son and any other children that come along. You never have to tell Henry or the others that I exist, as I'm pretty sure I can do a spot on imitation of Vicki. Vicki is all ready thinking of the day when you guys might have to break the news to Henry and whatever others might follow, by the way."

"For as well as she goes with the flow of things, she also likes to plan ahead." Jeff smiled as he thought of Vicki's quirks before looking back to Chloe. "She won't remember any of this stuff right now, will she? It's a one way street except for the stuff she remembered in her dream while pregnant, right?" Chloe nodded. "You're taking a hell of a risk, making me the bearer of this news. I could just not tell her, and you would never be an issue in our lives again."

"One can only hope that my life will never become an issue in yours. And yeah, there is that detail in the grand scheme of things, but because Vicki knows you pretty well, I also know you pretty well, and you're a good man, Jeff Powers. Through and through, nothing but the best. You may be a lawyer, but you're not the type to hold something back like this."

"Just like that?"

Chloe shrugged. "Vicki trusts you, so I trust you. Oh, and one other thing. I know it's a cliché, but if you ever do anything stupid to hurt Vicki or Henry, after Lois gets through with you Bruce will bring me back so I can kick your ass. Trust me when I say I can do it very, _very_ easily. Plus, I know, like, all the founding members of the Justice League, all of whom I recall liking me. Well, most of the time, anyway. There was an incident once... well, let's just say it raised a few eyebrows."

"I imagine trying to kill Lex Luthor would raise a few eyebrows."

"Actually, this happened a couple years before that. Not sure how much that's gotten around, actually. Clark, Batman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, I assume, and definitely Green Arrow... okay, so basically it's Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg that didn't know about that, at least as far as I knew."

Jeff blinked, surprised at how normal she sounded listing members of the Justice League. It was like it was an every day occurrence for her. "That's... while the situation isn't ideal, it's really cool to hear somebody talk about knowing members of the Justice League like it's completely normal to know a bunch of super heroes."

"You did not marry into normal," Chloe said with a smirk, and Jeff was once again reminded of Lois. "At least not normal as you define it, and for that I say you should be thankful."

"Your version of normal is how Vicki came to exist, so believe me when I say I am very thankful for everything that brought her into my life." Looking down, Jeff noticed Henry start to stir, and he was quickly crying. "Sounds like he's hungry."

"Yeah," Chloe said, though she started to frown as she started unbuttoning her shirt. "I feel like I should be more weirded out about opening my shirt in front of a man I met today so that the son I met today can suck on me for food." It didn't seem to stop her, though, as Jeff watched her get Henry latched on and nursing with the same ease Vicki did. "And that's definitely a new sensation." They watched Henry eat for a few minutes, Jeff letting the silence linger until she broke it. "Gotta say, it's been a weird day. And yet, not sure this qualifies for the top ten weird days in my life."

"I'm willing to listen if you'd like to compare and contrast."

Chloe shrugged, checking on Henry before looking back up at him. "There are _a lot_ to choose from, but I think I can figure some out. Probably best to start with the day my best friend told me he was an intergalactic traveler and go from there."


	43. Chapter 43

- Chapter 43

Humming quietly, Chloe rocked Henry slowly before checking to make sure he had gone back to sleep, and upon finding that he had she laid him down in the crib that Alfred had supplied upon her asking. Tempting an option as it was not to let Henry out of her grasp, she didn't think he was going to get very good sleep if she kept jostling him as she sat down, got up and walked around. Plus, she was getting hungry, and despite Vicki's memories at her disposal, she didn't want to try to eat while holding her sleeping baby, which seemed like a needless complication. Watching Henry, she had to stop herself from reaching down to run a hand over the wispy hairs on his head, instead running it back through her own. He didn't have much hair, but what he did have appeared to be blond, like hers. The shape of his mouth looked like hers, and maybe the ears, too. Even before he was two months old it was easy to see that he had inherited the Powers nose shape that both Jeff and Beth sported, something they had inherited from their father. That, or his nose was going to seriously reshape itself as he grew up, but from what she knew about growing up and noses that didn't seem very likely.

She had a son. _She_ had a _son_. In the two hours since Chloe had learned of and then remembered Henry's existence, she hadn't taken any time to try and understand what that meant to her. After everything that had happened to her, all the traumas she had gone through and survived, she was a little surprised that Vicki had been able to get pregnant and carry to term, but apparently the instances of getting hit with healing mojo, random hoodoo voodoo and whatever else had kept her uterus in tip top shape, outside of it being on the wrong side of the age/quality relationship. She would have to look into how exactly all that junk had affected her, if it had messed with her cell structure or done something else strange that wouldn't exactly be an easy explanation. Lois would probably need to get checked out for something like that, too, though she hadn't spent quite as much time in Smallville. Considering her three children, fathered by a man born on another planet, maybe that had all come to a positive effect rather than a negative. That would certainly be something new. Realizing that her thoughts had gone off on a tangent, Chloe blinked, her vision focusing on her sleeping baby again.

Henry was hers. She felt it down in her core, a bond to her baby that she didn't really understand while knowing _exactly_ what it was. He was a part of her, and hopefully all the good parts. She remembered the first time Vicki saw him, could feel that overwhelming surge of love, a similar but more exhausted and powerful version of what she had felt when she had first realized that the baby Jeff had been holding was her son. As she had felt one, the other had washed over her, those feelings spurring her into action as Henry had cried. Jeff had been right that he had been looking for her. He hadn't been hungry yet, instead just looking for mom so she could provide comfort. All at once she had been Henry's mom, with everything else becoming less important than it had been a moment earlier.

Rubbing at her eyes, Chloe walked out of the side room where Alfred had put the crib, grabbing one of the baby monitors that had also been provided by Bruce's butler of many talents. Most women had more time to wrap their heads around the idea of being a mom than the four seconds she'd had. Most people also didn't have two sets of memories at hand, and while she could remember Vicki's initial hesitation towards getting pregnant, every second of her pregnancy and Henry's short life, she didn't think those memories were an adequate substitute for actual mental preparation leading up to the moment where one finds out that she is, or even will be, a mother. It seemed like that was a time that helped one make the transition, especially in her current experience of not having that time. Spotting Lois talking to Beth as she entered into the main living room, she slowly made her way over to them. She had yet to take much time to speak to Jeff's sister, someone she knew to be very close to Vicki, so now would be a good opportunity to at least properly introduce herself, which she hadn't taken the time to do since waking up. Henry had been taking up much of her time and attention, with Lois and Jeff getting the rest of it. She would probably need to talk to Bruce, too, at some point, and maybe do more than make requests of Alfred. "Probably should have said this earlier," Chloe said with a small smile as she approached Beth, "but I'm Chloe. You may have heard of me over the last couple months."

"This must be what it's like to meet a celebrity whose life has been in the news for a long time." Beth smiled and pulled her into a quick hug, surprising Chloe a little. This was not unlike how Beth had approached her first time meeting Vicki. "Any family of Lois is as good as family of mine. Also, with as much as I know about you and all of Vicki's memories about me in your head, it doesn't feel like introductions are really necessary."

"Not necessary, but it makes things seem a lot more normal than they actually are." Scratching at the corner of her mouth, she watched Beth drink a little bit of water. "Are you feeling better today? I think Vicki would've asked earlier but she was preoccupied."

"Understandable," Beth said with a nod. "And yes, I am feeling a little better today. No nausea to speak of, but I'm playing it safe and not straying too far from water and plain food. Seems like a better idea than tempting fate."

"Yeah, I remember Vicki having a similar approach to things, though now that I think on it she may have simply heard you talking about how you'd handled morning sickness before and used your experience as a guide."

"See, I never asked her about that. She was weeks removed from her serious bouts of morning sickness by the time she and Jeff informed us of the pregnancy, and while I quizzed her on how her body had taken to it early on I never pushed on finding out how what she did to deal with nausea and vomiting. I never figured out anything when I was pregnant with Jenny or Liv that was consistently good at not upsetting my stomach."

Drawing upon Vicki's memories, Chloe was about to answer that Vicki hadn't found anything like that, either, but didn't get the chance, as she heard a familiar voice behind her say, "Hi, Chloe."

Turning around, she spotted Clark standing a little ways away, smiling widely at her. "Clark!" she cried out, grinning and running over to hug him. His arms wrapped around her as she got to him and he lifted her up, hugging her tightly, or at least more tightly than she remembered him hugging. He had always strayed towards the gentle side of hugging, taking a 'better safe than sorry' approach to situations where he could accidently crush people since they had been teens. When he put her down she looked up at his face, that same face he'd had ever since she had known him. "You've still barely aged a day," she said with a shake of her head. "You really need to get Jor-El to develop something so the rest of us can age very slowly, too. Having looked in a mirror since Bruce woke me up, I can safely say that I look great for my age, but am certainly in need of an age slowing elixir."

"Come on," Clark said with a smile. "You look great and you know it, especially considering you had a baby just under two months ago."

"It's that whole considering part of your statement that throws things off." Taking a step back from him, Chloe reached down and pinched loose skin that was underneath her shirt. "I love my son, but his residence in my uterus did not do my body any favors. And I know what you're going to say and I'm not complaining!" Chloe said, throwing a hand up to forestall Clark from interjecting. "I'm just saying that the last time I was conscious my body was still very lean and toned. I know that Vicki is working it back into shape, it's just taking me a little time to get used to looking like I did before the strict diet and intense training I was doing."

"Actually, what I was going to comment on was you saying that you love your son."

"Oh." Looking down at the ground, she smiled. "Yeah, there is that little piece of information, isn't there?"

"Didn't take you long, did it?"

Shaking her head, Chloe turned to face Clark. "No, it did not. He was crying, I realized he was mine and fell totally in love. Then Vicki's memories hit me and I fell in love all over again, because I could feel all the love she felt for him. It was amazing to realize, and as I held him for the first time, kind of, I couldn't believe what was happening. But it isn't without its inherent scariness. Let's just hope that his nurture has a bigger effect than his nature, because the more about him that's Vicki and the less about him that's Chloe is probably for the best."

"Well that's just not true," Chloe heard Lois say from behind her, finding her approaching as Beth had disappeared to somewhere else while she had been talking to Clark. She'd have to apologize for running out of a conversation like that. "Vicki is great, but there should be at least as much Chloe as there is Vicki. _At least_," Lois emphasized as she stopped next to Clark.

"Yes, please, let my son have a tendency to find danger, escape by the skin of his teeth and clash with billionaires who make it their sole purpose in life to destroy the life you've made. Oh, and also make it so he has a difficult time finding love," Chloe finished, crossing her arms and frowning at Lois, throwing Clark a look for good measure. Lois, in turn, rolled her eyes, with Clark simply raising an eyebrow. Chloe recognized each look, and focused her attention on Lois, as she would be the one doing most of the talking now. While they had wildly different ways of debating and making points, when they agreed on something that she disagreed with, Clark usually let Lois take the lead, instead sticking to a role of jumping in with counter-arguments Lois was having trouble verbalizing. It was an annoyingly effective double team tactic that they had perfected over the years in using against her. She often would end up resorting to lines of reasoning that were very non-linear and only loosely qualified as reasonable. "Let me put it this way: which one of us is a successful journalist? Which one actually found somebody who loved her, ending up married with child? And once you've answered those two questions, ask yourselves which of the two of us has attempted to murder more people. Once you've answered those questions, you'll see why I've spent the past two hours loving Henry and hoping like hell that he doesn't end up like me."

"Chloe," Clark said quietly, both he and Lois losing something of the mock seriousness they had been displaying, instead looking like they were both worried. "You know that the attempt you made on Lex's life doesn't define you and who you are, don't you?"

"Of course it defines me," Chloe responded, shrugging. "It's the worst thing I've ever done. It's the reason I didn't get to see Jacob between the ages of one and four, why I wasn't there when Cassidy and Devon were born. Congratulations on another girl, by the way," Chloe said, realizing she hadn't talked to Lois about her second daughter yet. Lois seemed convinced that Devon was going to be her clone, based on Vicki's memories, which Chloe thought would be amazing, though she could see why Lois would be worried. "I pulled the trigger. I committed murder and was only stopped from actually doing the deed because Superman literally got in the way. How could it _not_ define who I am?"

"It's inexcusable, but it's not the whole of who and what you are," Lois said, stepping closer. "Yes, you tried to kill Lex, but you can't take your whole life and boil it down to the worst thing you ever did, and certainly not an action you took while you were, in all likelihood, suffering from very deep depression."

"Lois, I was down, but I don't think I was depressed."

"You want to bet? I can call Sam right now, have her come over and make you describe everything that happened to you and how you felt afterwards. Bet you my big ass house against yours that she says you were depressed."

"But that doesn't excuse what I did," Chloe said, looking away.

"I didn't say that it did. But if you boil the whole thing down to 'I did this, therefore I am a bad person,' it leaves out the fact that you lost your dream job, fiancé and father in the span of a couple weeks. It leaves out that I shouldn't have tried to help you myself and should have pushed you to see a therapist so you had a professional to talk to about what was going on in your life and in your head." Chloe felt a hand on each side of her face, gently tilting it up so she was looking at Lois. "It leaves out that good people can be pushed into doing bad things, and that they can be forgiven for taking the wrong path."

"They can?" she asked, feeling a tear run down her cheek.

"They can," Lois said with a little nod before pulling her into a strong hug.

"I'm so sorry," Chloe said, unable to hold it in, burying her face in Lois's shoulder. "God, I'm so sorry." The words kept pouring out of her, over and over again, even when they had become nothing more than an incoherent mumble that she could barely understand herself and doubted that even Clark could pick out what she was saying.

This was the first time she had apologized to Lois and Clark. She should have done so as soon as she had gotten back after Bruce had sent her out to travel, but she never had, despite knowing that she had to. She had gone to the prison and apologized to Lex for trying to kill him, but never Lois and Clark, despite everything they had done for her. When she had gotten back from her travels she had felt like she had found some peace, fleeting as it had turned out to be, so she hadn't wanted to dive back into what had been the worst period of time in her life. After apologizing to Lex she had put that behind her, tried to put it out of her mind so that it was in the past and simply something that had happened in her life, but she hadn't been able to escape that easily.

But now, instead of feeling like she had found some peace in her life, when Bruce had brought her back, she had felt like there was peace in her life, despite it not being _her_ life. In the rush of memories and emotions that came with waking up from her induced hibernation, the happiness and brightness of Vicki's life had instantly infected her, making her feel like the world _wasn't_ such a fantastically horrible place that was out to get her, despite so much evidence to the contrary. It was amazing how much lighter the load of life felt now than it had day to day in Metropolis after she had returned from her travels. Vicki's life in her head was like a mood altering drug that gave her perspective on just how far gone she had been. It had been infectious, though she had tried to remain herself rather than become a hybrid of Chloe Sullivan and Vicki Vale Powers, easy as that seemed like it would be. The memories that Bruce had put in her head, the personality... even without going back to being Vicki, she could be Vicki. It would be simple for her to simply fall into the established patterns of Vicki that were in her head, and despite still being herself, she would be Vicki Vale Powers. It was something she had been tempted to do the first time Bruce had brought her back, when she had felt Vicki falling in love with Jeff. In the end, though, knowing that Vicki was living the life she had been unable to ever figure out while she had slumbered was what had made Chloe think of the situation less as hiding in plain sight and more of her imprisonment for attempted murder, the punishment that anybody else Superman had stopped would've gotten. Justice was a difficult thing to elude, and her own version of paying her debt to society was as unique as the rest of her life had been. She doubted people would want to call her 'Chlicki', anyway, as it sounded ridiculous.

Accepting a box of tissue from Clark as she pulled away from Lois, Chloe hiccuped as she tried to smile, drying her eyes and blowing her nose so that she looked like less of a giant mess and more like a small mess. "I never really thought that there could be any forgiveness for what I had done, that I _was_ my actions. To hear you tell me that I am not my actions, and that there can be forgiveness..." Swallowing, Chloe had to take a second to breathe so she didn't start crying again. "I can't believe how much better I feel hearing those words. I know that part of that is the happiness of meeting Henry and all of Vicki's memories and happiness in my head, but God, it's almost cathartic to know that I'm not defined by my worst decision."

"Of course you're not," Lois said, placing her hands on her shoulders and squeezing gently. "God, if we were all defined by our worst decisions the world would be a horrible, horrible place. I took up smoking to stick it to my dad after my mom died of lung cancer, for God's sake! I can't imagine how much it hurt The General to see that."

"Caused my mom to miscarry after sabotaging and blowing up the ship I came to Earth in," Clark said quietly from over Lois's shoulder, "not to mention being about three seconds away from snapping the neck of the guy who murdered Alicia our senior year. None of us can claim to be without sin, Chloe. I think the trick is learning from the mistakes you make so that you don't make them again. I know it's a clichéd thing to take away from this, but that's all we can do. Otherwise it would be a world of people that did the same stupid things over and over and over again."

"Says the guy who spends his days stopping criminals from doing the same stupid things over and over and over again," Chloe responded through a sniffle. She was annoyed that this whole thing boiled down having to learn from one's mistakes in attempting to move beyond them, but that was what most of life boiled down to. People spent their childhoods learning and making mistakes so they would be adults who didn't make stupid mistakes, and when they did make stupid mistakes people did their best not to repeat them. In the end, life probably boiled down to eighty years of learning, and if you were really lucky, maybe another ten or twenty years of learning beyond that. "I just... it's so easy to fall into the trap that you are your crime, that you are your actions, especially when your actions are particularly reprehensible. I know there were mitigating circumstances with Lex costing me my career and then my mediocre job, finding out my fiancé didn't love me and having my father die, and that I was probably deeply depressed..."

"No probably about it," Lois interjected, causing Chloe to shrug.

"Fine, no probably. Still, when you pull the trigger, when you commit totally to ending somebody else's life with malicious intent, it shows you something inside that you don't want to see about yourself, something you wish you didn't have to see. There's an ugliness in me that's capable of justifying murder, and I hate that. I _hate_ that it's part of me and wish that I could forget it is. But I can't, and that's something I was having a tough time dealing with." Sighing, Chloe pulled a hand back through her hair, messing it up a little so that it was more how she liked it and less in Vicki's style, though how much styling was left she had no idea. She did have a tendency to have a hand in her hair. "I never thought I would become one of the people that Superman had to stop."

"'If you don't get lost, there's a chance you may never be found'," Clark said quietly, smiling at her.

"Going to start throwing quotes at me now, are you?" Chloe asked through a sniffle, wiping at her nose again. "Fine, then I will also use a quote. 'I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.' That's Benjamin Franklin, summing up my life from ages twenty-eight to thirty-two. Now, though, I think I'm doing things right by letting Vicki keep being part of the world. Partly because she's a lot better at life than I've been for a long time now, but also because I'm paying my debt to society. Some people can say they're figuratively stuck in their own heads. I can say that I'm incarcerated in mine."

* * *

><p>Opening her eyes, it took Vicki a moment to orient herself, the world before her appearing blurry and unfocused. Rubbing at her eyes, she sat up, realizing the she was on Bruce's couch. The lights were on in the room, which was strange considering only a second ago she could remember there being sunlight streaming in through the windows. Spotting her glasses on the coffee table in front of her, she slid them on, the world growing clear. Checking her pockets, she found her phone in one and checked the time, finding it to be just after eight o'clock in the evening. That meant that she was missing about six and a half hours. She remembered sitting with Bruce on the couch, Lois sitting in the chair across from her, and he had said something, but the next thing she knew she was waking up on the couch. Certainly a disorienting process, though apparently a quick one. The last time he had brought Chloe back, then put her back to sleep, he must have done something so she hadn't remembered losing time before going home to Jeff.<p>

Standing up, Vicki stuffed her phone back into her pocket before walking out of the living room and towards the dining room, figuring that everybody must have decided to wait for her to wake up by eating a late dinner. As she turned a corner she stopped, hearing Henry's cries start coming from another direction. Turning, she walked back the other way, picking up her pace as she got closer and closer until she pushed open the door of a room next to the living room she had woken up in, where Henry was laying in a crib and crying his little heart out. "Hey there, you," she said quietly, reaching in and lifting him out, his cries abating a bit as she let him rest against her. "I should have known that you would be the first to greet me when I got back. You are the center of my universe now, aren't you?" Exiting the room where Henry had been sleeping, Vicki walked him back to the living room and sat down, checking his diaper before adjusting her shirt to see if he wanted to nurse. He quickly started eating, confirming that he was, in fact, hungry, and not just looking for attention. After smiling down at him, Vicki closed her eyes and sighed contentedly. "It hasn't been very long, but I have to say, Henry, I think I missed you. That's probably the first time the two of us have been apart for more than a few hours. Well, it's the first time I've been away from you. I'm sure Mommy's body and memories were here to comfort you, plus Daddy was here, and Aunt Beth, Aunt Lois, Uncle Bruce and Uncle Alfred! So really, Mommy's change in personality probably barely even registered for you."

"It may have barely registered for him, but it really registered for me," Vicki heard Jeff say quietly, causing her to open her eyes and spot him entering walking across the room, a couple glasses of water in hand.

"Hey," Vicki said with a smile, getting a pleasant surprise as Jeff sat down and promptly kissed her, holding her in a long, soft and sensual kiss didn't so much end as it did slowly fade into them lightly resting their faces against each other. "Wow," she whispered, only a breath of air between their lips.

"You nursed me back to health. You married me. You gave me a son." His lips gently captured hers again, a short to make her breathless again before he continued. "All that, and I don't think I knew how much I loved you until I was face to face with somebody who looked like you and sounded like you, but wasn't you."

"It's only been six hours," Vicki said as she glanced down at Henry, finding him still nursing contentedly. Despite Henry's overall helplessness and reliance on her, she wasn't sure which one of her two guys needed her more. "To me, it feels like I fell asleep and woke up."

"To me, it was like watching an impostor. She moved differently, spoke with different intonations. The big picture was the same, but all the details were wrong."

"I think Lois described meeting me like that." Vicki opened her eyes, nudging Jeff's nose with her own. "I'm back now. You don't have to worry anymore."

"I know, I know. It was just... I saw the life we've made together flash before my eyes, and it made me appreciate you and Henry even more." Jeff finally opened his eyes, too, blinking a couple times. "I love you."

"Love you, too," Vicki said, "and don't ever forget it."


End file.
